UN cites poor infrastructure as Africa’s biggest limitation

Poor road, rail and harbour
facilities add 30 to 40% to the
cost of goods traded among
African countries. The expense of
moving Africa's imports to customers
inland is on average 50% higher
than shipping costs in other low-income
regions.
The lack of modern storage
and marketing facilities is a major
contributor to food insecurity, with
losses to spoilage accounting for as
much as 30 to 40% of grain harvests in
some countries.
These are the estimates provided
to the United Nations’ (UN’s) African
Renewal by the Infrastructure
Consortium for Africa (ICA), whose
members include the Group of Eight
industrialised countries, multilateral
development institutions and the
Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Closing the infrastructure gap is
therefore vital for Africa’s future.
But this will not come cheaply. UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last
year called for more than $52 billion a
year in public and private investments
to close Africa's infrastructure gap
by 2010.