Rural development in most of the developing countries, Namibia included, entails making sure that
every area is accessible in terms of road networks and telecommunications. Such infrastructure
avoids the alienation of some areas or segregation and marginalisation of these same areas. Just as
in many other African countries, a large portion of the Namibian population is located in the rural
areas, yet development has not as of yet cascaded downstream to reach them. This research
explores how rural road infrastructure development and facelift can transform the economic
development of the rural folk. Most entrepreneurs in rural areas struggle to grow as they have
challenges connecting to the markets, due to poor road infrastructure. The rural people in Tsandi and
Opuwo constituencies in north-western Namibia desire to be easily connected to activity centres like
schools, hospitals, etc. However, accessibility, especially during the rainy season, is a problem.
The researcher used a quantitative data analysis method on data collected from rural residents and
rural entrepreneurs via questionnaires, interviews and observation methods. These methods were
combined in order to come up with a more reliable conclusion from the randomly selected sample,
representing the population of the two constituencies in the north-western Namibia.
Rural communities are prevented from accessing a number of resources because of poor road
networks. For example, it is common that the rural residents get stale news with expiration dates
ranging from one month up until three to four months. This report shall propagate various ways that
can be employed to improve road infrastructure in the rural areas as well as unveil the benefits of
such development to overall rural economic challenges. A large amount of literature was considered
for review on this topic as well as field research in order to understand the findings on the topic and to
come up with a sound conclusion containing worthwhile recommendations. It was observed that
rural road infrastructure development plays a pivotal role in rural socio-economic development,
which is usually measured by the Rural Access Index (RAI). As the road infrastructure improves, so
too will the standard of living for rural people because they will have the convenience and ease of
road travel to be able to access to hospitals, schools and other activity centres. In order to effectively
unlock the full potential of rural road infrastructure and transport corridors, a new perspective for road
infrastructure is required that takes into account lessons learnt and changes to the external
environment.