By Tim Schweikert

Africa’s stakeholders are partnering to realise their ambition to improve transport infrastructure to spur economic growth on the continent.

For decades, transport industry players in Africa and beyond have noted the lack of connectivity on the continent, which hampers regional trade. This is aggravated by unaligned cross-border policies and procedures and a lack of coordinated international strategies to put things right.

But this is changing. With the world looking to Africa for growth, the continent is focused on improving infrastructure through partnerships and using global and African best practices to find sustainable solutions.

Africa has an overall plan and regional plans, projects are being prioritised and some are already taking shape. The overall plan is the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida), adopted by African leaders in Addis Ababa in January 2012. The plan has high-level business, financial and political backing.

Backing this up from the business side is the Africa Infrastructure Desk, with three-year funding from Transnet, aimed specifically at identifying and accelerating business opportunities in infrastructure. This is an initiative of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Business Foundation, which is looking at ways to mobilise private-sector involvement in regionally integrated infrastructure in Africa.

Energy and transport are top priorities because both are essential for the economic growth that creates jobs, raises living standards and lifts millions out of poverty.

Task teams are busy in various parts of the continent, and cynics will immediately ask: With what results? As in any part of the world, progress is mixed, with some countries being more focused on development oppor- tunities than others.

South Africa has a clear lead through its R4-trillion 15-year infrastructure plan, and Transnet is ahead in the transport sector because of its R300-billion capital expenditure programme, which will be invested mainly in rail and ports projects. It is not all internal – South Africa champions the North–South Road and Rail Corridor, which is part of the African Union’s Nepad Presidential Infrastructure Championing Initiative.

Other countries forging ahead with infrastructure projects, particularly rail development, are Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique. Zambia and Botswana are landlocked, and both are looking to upgrade and extend their rail links to allow them to export minerals and other goods through Angola and Namibia, on the West Coast.

Because rail is so important to Africa’s development and economic growth, we need a 20-year vision that will guide transport development within and between countries and regions.

Rail development, whether rehabilitating and upgrading existing links or building new ones, involves long-term projects and international financing. This, in turn, requires leaders with drive and a long-term vision.

A good place to start is projects to move freight from road to rail – as each one is completed and people realise the advantages, the idea gains momentum.
Africa needs strong rail and road networks – it must have both road and rail, or the roads will be torn up by heavy-duty trucks, similar to what is hapenning now because of Africa’s inadequate rail systems.

The US built rail first, then electricity and roads. It is these three that Africa needs now.

There are obstacles to be overcome, not least Africa’s vast distances, mountains and rivers and a proliferation of rail gauges resulting from Africa’s colonial history. Africa has 47 different railway systems in 32 countries and neighbouring countries often have rail systems that are incompatible with each other. The low quality of rail transport networks in Africa limits interconnectivity and the amount of trade that African countries can do with one another.

Africa’s leaders recognise that modernising the continent’s rail network is a key strategic objective. Without this, Africa will not realise its potential to develop into one of the world’s most important economic hubs, given its mineral wealth and potential manufacturing capability.

Infrastructure and the trade that it brings can also help rebuild shattered economies. In the wake of World War II, France and Germany became the anchors of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). By linking markets across borders, the communities that had been at war six short years before were economically incentivised to drive innovation, cooperation and growth. The success of the ECSC led to the foundation of today’s European Union, the world’s largest single market.

The Africa Infrastructure Desk has a seemingly simple objective – to support the development of African intraregional trade and cross-border trade through private-sector investment in public economic infrastructure, specifically rail, port and pipeline.

Transport infrastructure projects are under way or planned in several regions of the continent. Transport corridors are being developed, within and between countries. Development is happening – not always as quickly as planners had hoped – but projects are being added to lists which include quick wins and longer-term developments.

Progress will be patchy and sporadic, and areas of progress and development will become examples for others to follow. But there is unanimity among businesspeople and governments across the continent that it is time to get Africa moving.

Scheikert is president and CEO of GE Southern Africa.