- Africa’s infrastructure gaps hinder populations from accessing healthcare, education, trade hubs, and economic opportunities.
- Africa has only 53 per cent of paved roads, isolating millions of people from access to essential services.
- AfDB President says the development of regional corridors should be complemented with one-stop border posts to stimulate trade.
Across Africa, the continent’s road infrastructure deficit creates high production and transaction costs. A new report notes that these persistent bottlenecks in the vast continent must be addressed to scale opportunities envisaged under the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The “Cross-Border Road Corridors Expanding Market Access in Africa and Nurturing Continental Integration” report states that while roads are the primary mode of transport, carrying 80 per cent of goods and 90 per cent of passenger traffic, only 43 per cent of Africa’s main population have access to an all-season road. According to the International Monetary Fund, Africa’s population will hit 2.5 billion people by 2050.
Africa’s infrastructure gaps isolate people from services
“Just 53 per cent of roads on the continent are paved, isolating people from access to basic services, including healthcare, education, trade hubs, and economic opportunities,” the report, released at a special session of the Africa Investment Forum 2023 Market Days in Marrakech, Morocco, says.
The “Regional Corridors: Quest to Integrate Africa” session featured a panel discussion on the strategic importance of regional corridors in connecting Africa. Panelists included policymakers from the government, regional economic communities, development partners, and private sector service providers.
Opening the session, AfDB President Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina urged collaborative efforts to fast-track the integration of African economies. Dr Adesan also called for the lowering of transport costs, the connection of landlocked countries to coastal countries, as well as the improvement of regional trade and competitiveness.
“That is the Africa we want: a fully interconnected Africa, using regional corridor infrastructure and innovative regional financing instruments, to unleash economic opportunities and assure competitiveness of national and regional value chains. A well-connected Africa will be a more competitive Africa.”
Read also: Trans-African infrastructure: a vital tool to ignite tourism and trade.
Regional corridors foster collaboration
He intimated that the Africa Investment Forum will dedicate a unique boardroom annually for regional corridors to foster greater collaboration, co-financing, and faster development of strategic corridors.
Dr Adesina suggested five priority areas to optimize the benefits of developing regional corridors across Africa. These include dedicating pooled financing facilities to corridor projects, building special industrial zones around the corridors to optimize existing infrastructure, and adopting a systematic approach and platform to syndicate around the development of strategic regional corridors.
He said the development of regional corridors should be complemented with one-stop border posts to facilitate trade and reduce travel times on the corridors. He proposed concessional financing, such as the AfDB, which offers low-income countries unmatched resources to commit to developing regional corridors.
He reaffirmed the AfDB’s commitment to infrastructure development, saying the institution invested over $44 billion over the last seven years to develop road corridors, ports, and railways, expand power pools to interlink countries and boost trade.
In the latest round of commitments, Dr Adesina said the AfDB would contribute $500 million to develop the strategic Lobito Corridor to connect Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, connecting the mines to the port in Angola.
Read also: Lobito Corridor: a US-backed mining catalyst in DRC and Zambia
Key infrastructure projects in Africa
Other projects include the $20 billion Desert-to-Power initiative to develop 10 GW of solar power across 11 countries of the Sahel zone; the Mozambique-Beira corridor transport system; the $259 Kazungula bridge, which has already been commissioned; the $2.7 billion Nacala rail and port project in Mozambique, and the Lagos-Abidjan highway, which secured investment interest of $15.2 billion at the Africa Investment Forum last year.
As of 2022, the AfDB had financed 25 transport corridors, constructed over 18,000km of roads, 27 border posts, and 16 bridges for $13.5 billion.
Danae Pauli, Senior Advisor for the US-led Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), a lead partner in the Lobito Corridor, said her government’s involvement in the project reflects its commitment to partnering with African nations and institutions and not relying just on traditional aid for Africa.
“Our goal is not rail for the sake of rail, but to catalyze investments across multiple sectors to spur economic growth and improve lives,” she said, projecting that the project could be operational by 2028.
Lobito corridor’s development involves collaboration between the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the US, the EU, the AfDB, and the governments of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Upon completion, the Lobito Corridor promises to enhance export opportunities for Zambia, Angola, and the DRC, facilitate goods movement, and improve citizens’ mobility.
The Lobito project entails the construction of approximately 550 kilometres of railway. The railway will start from the Jimbe border to Chingola in the Zambian copper belt. This transportation line will also encompass a 260 km system of feeder roads within the corridor.
