East Africa Economic Report

Quality Roads: 60,00Km deficit The UN Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, has just published a report on the effect of AfCFTA, on the transport sector. It says that the FTA will nearly double intra-Africa trade by 2030. This will raise demand for transport services by nearly 50 percent by 2030 resulting in new demand for transport equipment- Trucks, Wagons, Airplanes, and Marine Vessels.  In turn, the increased equipment will put pressure on the existing transport infrastructure- roads, Railroads, Airports, and Sea Ports. This demand spiral will cost US$571 billion to meet, says the report.  The report quantifies gaps in the sector that could stymie the FTA’s effect and the cost of meeting the new demand for transport infrastructure and equipment. Transport equipment will cost $411 billion while infrastructure will cost US$160 billion says the report. The bulk of the costs will fall on the private sector, that is, Truckers who will cough up S$345.5 billion for the more than two mi