Physical Trade Infrastructure - UNECA

Africa's shaky infrastructural base endangers the continent's economic transformation, growth potential through industrialization, value addition, export diversification and regional integration. Road access is poor and inadequate as majority of trans-African Highways (TAHs) are not completed. Indeed, only six African countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland) have better railroad infrastructure than the global average while access to ICT and electricity is poor, impeding industrialization and structural transformation. Closing Africa’s infrastructure gap would require financing from both public and private sector. Private sector investment in infrastructure provides private investors a means to generate profit, create employment, freeing up government budget for other development projects and decreasing debt to fund infrastructure. In addition, it allows new ways in designing, financing, operating and maintaining infrastructure development.

To enhance private sector investment in transboundary infrastructure in the context of the Dakar Agenda for Action, ECA commissioned a comprehensive study into the possible risks unique to the 16 transboundary infrastructure projects endorsed by African heads of state at the Dakar Financing Summit (DFS) of June 2014. The study looks into and analyzes the nature, typology, depth, and scope of risks associated with investment in regional infrastructure. The study also analyses the potential to de-risk and mitigate the projects and make them more appealing for private sector investment, thereby enhancing Africa's regional integration agenda.