Corridor investment is shifting (slowly) towards rail, in order to reduce supply chain carbon emissions and reduce transport costs. According to ALG business and strategy consultants Joan Vilardell and Mario Mateo, road carries around 80% of freight in Africa, compared to 47% in Europe.They state that most railway lines in sub-Saharan Africa are in fair to poor condition, with notable exceptions resulting from significant developments in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Nigeria.Road conditions are not much better, with an average of 27% of African roads being paved, the majority of which are in North Africa.With limited funds and growing debt, governments therefore must choose between rail and road. Hugh Lamarque and Paul Nugent, authors of “Transport Corridors in Africa”, point out that the choice is informed by the motivation behind a corridor initiative, which ranges from resource extraction to urban development and poverty reduction. Other factors are prioritising regional integration or national interest, sources of revenue for maintaining the corridor, port configuration, and the vested interest in existing transport modes.There is plenty of support for the corridors, with funding mainly from the west and United States. Initiatives include Comesa Customs Transit Systems, East African Community Transit System, the Tripartite Transport and Transit Facilitation Programme (TTTFP), which includes the 28 members of Comesa, EAC and SADC, the West African Transport and Transit Facilitation Project, one-stop border posts, trade information portals, and corridor management authorities, some of which are funded by the private sector.More international funding could be unlocked by the “greening” of the corridors by switching to rail and sea. “The global drive towards a low-carbon transition is shaping the way that infrastructure is financed and built,” writes Sandy Lowitt in a TIPS (Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies) report. “African cross-border transport infrastructure projects stand to benefit from this trend if they can effectively integrate, monitor, and report environmental costs and benef its.”Short sea shipping is a natural fit for green corridors, but initiatives seem to be stuck in the doldrums. Lowitt’s study into containerised short sea shipping services serving South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya, found that “the widespread adoption of short sea shipping will greatly help to lower the carbon dioxide footprint of the region”.It would also make commercial sense. ER
