Reports Leo Odera Omolo

A three days Tripartite Investors Conference held in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi last week herd that poor and inefficiency in the transport system is the biggest impediment to growth in Africa.

The Tripartite Conference on Infrastructure was told that he transport costs on the continent are prohibitively high and act to limit investments, which rely to economic growth.

“Today, it cost about USD 5,000 {Kshs 500,000} to ship a car from Abidjan to Addis Ababa, but it can just cost USD 1,500 {Kshs 150,000} to ship the same car from Japan to Abidjan,” says Sindiso Ngwenya, the Secretary General of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa {Comesa}.

He went on,”It cost about USD 1000 to ship a 20 container from Japan to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa, but the same can cost as much as USD 5000 {Kshs 500,000} to ship similar container from Mombasa to Rwanda and Burundi.

The regional economic blocs, the Southern African Development Community {SADC} and the East African Community {EAC}, Comesa and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development {IGAD} also inferred as Tripartite Conference heard that without reliable and competitively freight transport system, delivered on the foundation sturdy infrastructure different have little hope of trading profitably.

Comesa hopes that with funding from investors and adequate political will from the governments, the region will start making the in-road toward proper development in the near future.

“If our farmers cannot transport their produce to markets from relatively rural of areas, they will be unable to break out subsistence agriculture,” Ngwenya said.

“If they cannot transport their children to schools and clinics, the next generations will fair no better. Efficient system makes market works.”

For African economic growth to take pace with the continent’s booming population, it needs investment of some USD100 billion each year in infrastructure alone.

Private lending arm of the World Bank- IFC has estimated that Africa invests USD 10 billion each year in energy, but actually needs investments of USD 40 billion annually in this sector a lone.

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