# The Role of Renewable Energy Sources and Industry 4.0 Focus for Africa: A Review
## 4 Challenges Facing Industry 4.0 Actualization in Africa and Proposed Remedies
### Way Forward for Africa's Involvement in Industry 4.0  
Africa has great potential in renewable energy sources to actualize its industry 4.0 focus. Nearly all African countries can generate hydropower, as they are directly or indirectly linked to the Indian or Atlantic Oceans. Additionally, some very high waterfalls exist in many African countries that need to be exploited for hydropower generation. A good example is the Menchum waterfall in the northwest region of Cameroon. Estimates are that this waterfall can power nearly half of west Africa if utilized. Apart from hydropower, most sub-Saharan African countries have vast land suitable for solar power generation that still needs to be put in use. The key retarding factor to Africa's fourth industrial revolution is the lack of political will by African governments to design good innovation and digital policies to accelerate its implantation.  
Africa is already a global leader in available resources and its youthful population. Still, the region needs to catch up to leverage its potential. It needs to catch up to the rest of the globe regarding connection, data ownership, privacy, and security, digital infrastructure, and overall digital strategies.  
Work on digital innovation and policy should be done in collaboration with the corporate sector, civic society, and the development community in Africa and worldwide. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will require robust digital strategies, bolstered innovation and entrepreneurly ecosystems, advanced critical digital infrastructure, improved digital skills, and adequate road infrastructure.  
Agricultural modernization is also a critical transformation route to the actualization of Industry 4.0 in Africa. However, this is threatened by the devastating impacts of climate change. Climate-smart agriculture can aid in boosting farmer production by fostering resilience. To convert climate concerns into possibilities, the continent has to implement technological advancements along the entire agricultural value chain. This will increase their ability to compete on a global scale, diversify their economy, and realize Industry 4.0. The political will must be strong across the continent to support the digital economy, improved transportation infrastructure, and labor mobility. Greater regional cooperation will aid in removing previously slowed growth obstacles, mainly by providing restricted public goods like transportation corridors and Internet connection.  
The continent of Africa has the potential to harness and benefit greatly from solar energy. The energy is clean, available to all, and capable of generating more than needed. However, the government or corporate entities should be ready to subsidize the initial cost of solar energy farms for its rural population as this is not affordable to the average African household. An excellent way to cut costs would be by creating manufacturing facilities in the continent for solar energy harvesting equipment. This will eliminate the cost of importing solar equipment from the limited manufacturing outlets in Africa. The creation of vast solar farms in different locations for the national grid will avert the issue of reliability related to weather fluctuation in solar technology in Africa.  
The continent, through structures like the African Union and Pan-African Parliament, needs to develop proper regulations that will assist with implementing 4 IR features in the continent. There have yet to be formal guidelines and rules towards this effect.  
New skill sets such as big data capturing and management, cognitive skills, social media management, processing, and problem-solving should be included in Africa's school curriculum.