African transport sector 'needs regional cooperation as well as investment'

14 December 2009

Improving transport infrastructure in Africa will depend on effective regional integration as well as investment efforts, studies have found.

The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic carried out in 24 different sub-Saharan countries has outlined the necessary improvements to target the unique challenges faced by the continent.

Entitled Africa's Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation, the report noted changes would need to be both in improving the physical state of services but also backing regulatory and legislative reform.

A lack of regional integration sees freight fleets limited to 12 kilometres an hour along international corridors and limited competition in the trucking industry means road tariffs are unnecessarily high.

Central Africa is most affected by this problem and in countries such as Chad, these charges could represent approximately 52 per cent of the value of exports.

The paper also noted only 40 per cent of rural Africans live within two kilometres of an all-season road and linkages between air, road and rail are ineffective to the point of handicapping agricultural productivity.

Category: Transport