With much of the world’s economy stuck in the mud, Africa has provided a rare bright spot of consistent growth throughout the past decade. But that dynamism depends on an ability to move people, food and goods around.
Across much of sub-Saharan Africa, rural life depends on subsistence farming. For farmers to step up to higher incomes, they need to get surplus produce to markets; more than half of Africa’s harvest rots after it is gathered because of the time it takes to move food into towns.
Jamal Saghir, director of the World Bank’s sustainable development department, Africa region, says bottlenecks, poor rural roads and delays are a huge challenge to the continent’s success.
“Transport costs in sub-Saharan Africa are still significantly higher than in any other part of the world,” he says. World Bank statistics suggest moving goods around in Africa is four to six times more expensive than in Pakistan, three to five times the cost in Vietnam and two to three times that in Costa Rica. Transport can take up as much as 77 per cent of the cost of African exports.
“Road density and rural access in Africa is still among the lowest in world,” says Saghir. “The connection agenda is very important.”
Advertisement
To upgrade ports, improve roads, maintain airports and get railways on track, African transport infrastructure needs as much as $18 billion (£11 billion) annually. The World Bank reckons $16 billion can be raised from investors and donors, but that leaves a $2 billion investment gap.
The problem is frustrating; trading companies in Mombasa complain that containers can arrive quickly on ships from Japan but that it takes three or four times longer to move goods around within Kenya.
Healthcare, too, depends on transport. As many as 20 per cent of maternal deaths in Africa happen on the roads as mothers do not survive the journey to receive acute care at healthcare facilities due to delays.
Jeff Turner, visiting lecturer at the Institute for Transport Studies at the University of Leeds, says: “There’s an awful lot of effort and recognition going into the need for connectivity, both within Africa and from Africa to the rest of the world.”
But he adds: “The picture is mixed and the outcomes are mixed — some things work and some things don’t.”
Advertisement
Air travel is relatively cheap and consistent: the International Civil Aviation Organization predicts African air traffic will grow by 8 per cent in 2012 and by 8.3 per cent in 2013.
However, as many as a quarter of runways are in poor condition and high-profile accidents, including a crash that killed 74 people last year at Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, have highlighted flaws in aviation safety. The industry is not particularly lucrative, either; the air industry body IATA predicts a $100 million loss this year for African airlines as a whole.
On the ground, key long-distance corridors, on both road and rail, are in place but road networks can be poorly co-ordinated across national borders and a paucity of secondary routes hampers local populations.
Turner points to Africa’s north- south corridor linking Durban, South Africa, to destinations in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Although a key route to South Africa’s container ports, it needs better linkage to local roads. He says, “There’s a danger that the only connection to local populations is that they get to stand at the side of the road and sell goods to passing lorries.”
Huge sums of money are being spent on transport across the continent to upgrade infrastructure, much of which was built during the colonial era to exploit Africa’s rich resources. Improving connectivity will be crucial if UN members are to meet millennium development goals in combating poverty, reducing child mortality and fighting epidemics.
Advertisement
Ethiopia is proving particularly ambitious; the government in Addis Ababa wants to splash $1 billion to $2 billion on a modern national roads network to emulate infrastructure in India and China.
Standard Chartered bank’s head of Africa research, Razia Khan, says transport is “the biggest focus for most African governments”.
She adds: “Africa has seen a number of years of sound economic growth, almost a decade long. While that’s all very well, it doesn’t necessarily lead do structural growth if the necessary infrastructure isn’t in place.”
Case Study EasyJet founder budgets for new Ghana venture
Advertisement
The founder of Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, is hoping to transform the African aviation scene with a new venture based in Ghana that could eventually spread its wings across the continent.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has teamed up with Lonrho, a stalwart of the African business scene, with a plan to create a carrier called Fastjet, which could initially link Ghana with six other West African countries.
The project is to be run through a London-listed company, Rubicon, which raised £9 million through a share placing in December. Sir Stelios and his colleagues say that the opportunity is ripe for the picking.
“West African routes are currently poorly served, except by flag carriers with little understanding of the low-cost model,” said a spokesman for EasyGroup.
“This is despite the region having some of the world’s fastest-growing economies — the IMF projects Ghanaian growth of 13.5 per cent this year.”
Advertisement
A feasibility study due to be published shortly is expected to recommend that Fastjet initially leases 15 aircraft. If it is successful, the airline could eventually become the first pan-African low-cost carrier.
“According to Airline Business magazine, 74 per cent of intra-African routes have no more than one daily flight, while about half of African city pairs are underserved,” said EasyGroup’s spokesman.
As the economy of sub-Saharan Africa grows, demand for flights is expanding rapidly. The International Civil Aviation Organisation expects passenger growth of at least 8.3 per cent annually over the next two years, largely driven by business travellers. But safety and reliability remain prime concerns.