A Jo’burg hobbyist turned drone entrepreneur believes the high-flying tech could form part of the solution to South Africa’s unemployment crisis. Rebekah Funk met with him to find out how.
For Yegen Naicker, the whizz of a drone flying overhead back in 2014 represented a new world of possibilities.
“I have always been interested in robotics and technology, so when I first saw a drone fly it grabbed my attention immediately. The technology was fairly new to me but I suddenly saw all the sustainable solutions that could be provided for with drones,” Naicker explains.
He began investigating the latest international drone and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies, building them at home as a hobby.
His mind buzzed with all the potential: what about drones for farming, crime prevention, mining and surveying? And how could drones and UAVs create jobs to reduce South Africa’s staggering unemployment rates?
“We owe it to our country and our world to explore these opportunities wherever they may be, to create useful solutions and solve problems,” Naicker believes.
Realising there wouldn’t be an “off-the-shelf” solution for many of the potential drone uses he envisaged, Naicker founded Gauteng-based e-commerce business RC Infinity in 2017 and began building custom drones, and selling readymade drones.
He’s obviously not alone in seeing the potential for drones to be used for good in Africa. In Rwanda, for instance, they deliver blood to transfusion centres; Malawi uses them to deliver and collect HIV test kits in rural areas; in Sudan, drones are combatting deforestation by sowing acacia seeds to bind the soil.
Other African countries, meanwhile, are flying surveillance patrol drones to combat rhino and elephant poaching or illegal fishing, and track oil spills and environmental pollution.
Not only ‘big boy toys’
While they still are hot property as remote control toys for adults, drone technology has advanced way beyond recreation. They can land on water and film below the waves, while new solar battery technology is being developed to enable drones to fly for weeks at a time without landing – and without contributing to the climate crisis.
The opportunity for job creation is equally exciting. At the most recent Drone Con in Durban in October 2019, KwaZulu-Natal’s MEC for Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, stressed the importance of training youth in niche technology to prepare them for work in the fourth industrial revolution.
It’s a sentiment Naicker shares — he says South Africa has some of the toughest drone regulations, which means getting certification here can open up opportunities for work locally and abroad.
To this end, RC Infinity works with aspiring operators to train them to fly drones safely and obtain their own licences.
“We can get any aspiring drone operator to a legally operational point within a short space of time, in the simplest, most effective way,” he explains. “Our training is holistic — suited to the pilot or user’s individual needs and industry.”
Mapping the future
But the commercial use of drones is where Naicker’s biggest market lies – his clients are mainly focused within the agriculture industry. RC Infinity uses drones to map and photograph farms from above, allowing farmers to identify and eradicate pests and disease early, before they devastate an entire field.
“With the use of drones, we are able to generate specialised crop health and land maps, to assist farmers — large or small — with data-rich reports they can use to make informed decisions,” Naicker explains.
After recently completing the two-year business support programme run by the SAB Foundation Tholoana Programme, Naicker is determined to become the largest drone supplier in Africa. He plans to expand into other industries such as surveying, mining, cinematography and security, in the hopes he can continue to solve some of its biggest challenges, including high youth unemployment.
“The link of crime to unemployment is a reality and the drone industry can provide jobs. Take drone delivery for example…we will need maintenance technicians, pilots, control centre operators, client care agents, research and development specialists, administration staff — the list goes on.”
Because for Naicker, the sky’s the limit.