{"id":6975,"date":"2019-12-04T15:23:45","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T12:23:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=6975"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:44","slug":"looking-a-little-closer-to-home-infrastructure-deficit-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/12\/04\/looking-a-little-closer-to-home-infrastructure-deficit-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking A Little Closer to Home \u2013 Infrastructure Deficit in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Africa\nhas a huge infrastructure shortfall. The World Bank estimates that the\ncontinent will need to invest US$ 93 billion each year for the next decade to address\nthe deficit. Some countries are doing alright. South Africa is ranked 32nd<\/sup>\nglobally for its infrastructure Mauritius ranks 42nd<\/sup> and Namibia 52nd<\/sup>.\n Elsewhere, however, there are more\nserious issues. Nigeria needs to spend US$ 15 billion each year to make up its\nshortfall. Tanzania, in 130th <\/sup>position, has poor roads and ports <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Africa’s\nshare of global manufacturing is drastically disproportionate to its\npopulation. While 15 percent of the world’s population lives in Africa, only\nabout one percent of global manufacturing takes place there. This is largely\ndue to poor transport, communication, and energy infrastructures- a report by\nUNCTAD’s Economic Development in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelling 1,800 kilometres by train from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia is a poor, rough and sad journey that speaks volumes of the devastating state of Africa\u2019s transport system. Disused wagons are a common sight and the train makes several unexplained stops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanzania-Zambia\nRailways (Tazara), one of the region\u2019s biggest post-independence infrastructure\nprojects is still plagued by derailments and breakdowns after almost four\ndecades in operation. The train is dilapidated and cannot carry heavy loads\nwhich are otherwise transported by different means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most\nAfrican states have inadequate road transport systems. Poor and substandard\nroads decorate the continent <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Poor and substandard roads decorate the continent |Photo by simpetgroup.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Still,\ntransport infrastructure is not even the region’s biggest problem, keeping\nlights on is. The majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa still experience\nregular power-outages which greatly contribute to the low productivity of many\nfirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto a 2010 report by the World Bank, Power is Africa\u2019s biggest infrastructure\nweak point, with so many as 30 countries facing regular power outages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies\noperating in most African countries where power supply is unreliable have\nresorted to purchasing diesel-operated power generators, which increase\noperating costs drastically. Experts estimate electricity produced by diesel\ncan cost twice as much as energy from coal or hydropower \u2013based power systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High\nenergy costs combined with other infrastructure deficits- rail and road\nproblems have lowered productivity rates at African companies by as much as 40\npercent. Investors are shunning away from such barriers hence the economic\ndevelopment is highly lowered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobility\nis at the core of many critical issues that have been shaping the global\ndevelopment agenda. Africa is, however, the worst affected<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nChinese government has done tremendous efforts to improve the transport system\nin Sub-Saharan Africa. China is the biggest financer of infrastructure projects\nin Africa. It is contributing to infrastructure resources that link resources in\ncountries as diverse as Mauritania, Sudan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of\nthe Congo, Gabon, Angola, and Zambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The foreign investors have been to the aid of making sure that African roads are constructed to the standard levels and with expertise. However, this leaves the African continent with a toll of debts that are to be paid even with future generations. A common newborn baby typically has a debt to pay even before it is conceived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On-going rail construction | Photo by CGTN Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Past efforts to improve infrastructure on the\ncontinent have often come up short. Corruption, security concerns and the\nthreat of political instability are, to varying degrees, issues that threaten\nto derail projects that get past the approval stage. While the Programme for\nInfrastructure Development in Africa has shown promise, only four of its 51\nmajor projects have reached the advanced implementation stage so far. Whether\nthe scheme can meet its ambitious funding goals remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If infrastructure can be improved, it would\nprovide many African nations with a means of pulling themselves out of poverty.\nBy improving logistics and trading networks, countries would be able to make\nbetter use of their natural resources. Mozambique, for example, is rich in\naluminum, coal and natural gas, but poor in terms of its trade facilitation and\nlogistics. Its current levels of coal production exceed its rail capacity,\nwhile the road network, which is largely unpaved or underdeveloped, causes\nfurther bottlenecks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ensuring Africa can make the most of its resources will go a long way to improving citizens\u2019 quality of life. Africa\u2019s vast infrastructure deficit is a constraint on its growth, but also an opportunity to leapfrog to new, more efficient technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa has a huge infrastructure shortfall. The World Bank estimates that the continent will need to invest US$ 93 billion each year for the next decade to address the deficit.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}