Egyptian Transport Minister Hisham Arafat has announced the completion of Egypt’s section of the Pan-African road which is due to end in Cape Town. Various other Africa countries are constructing and upgrading their roads in order to achieve the idea set out by the African Union in 2015 - a single highway linking the north and south of Africa.
The 10 300km highway expansion will link the port city of Alexandria to Cape Town, passing through Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.
Abdel Mottaleb Abdel Hamid, professor of economics at the Sadat Academy for Management Sciences in Cairo, highlighted the importance of this project to the African trade industry. “[It] will reshape the trade and investment chart in Africa. It will open the way for boosting inter-African trade, as the cost of transportation will be lower compared to maritime and air freight,” said Abdel Hamid in a recent interview with online newspaper, Al-Monitor.
The initiative was proposed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa but each country is financially, technically and logistically responsible for its stretch of the highway which ultimately aims to pave the way for sustainable development on the continent.
