Results of FTW Africa Outlook survey
Border issues and
challenges within
the Southern African
Development
Community (SADC) region
are still the biggest barriers to
trade and, if addressed, could
significantly boost growth and
eliminate business risks.
That was one of the findings of
a survey conducted by FTW last
month, in which freight service
providers and cargo owners
highlighted the challenges and
opportunities around doing
business on the continent,
pointing out which countries
offered the best potential growth
opportunities and where they saw
the potential business pitfalls.
It is interesting to note that,
with some exceptions, the two
parties – cargo owners and
service providers – are mostly
on the same page with regard to
challenges and opportunities, as
well as growth potential.
When asked to weigh in
on the one thing they would
improve upon – given the power
to do so – the majority chose
to eliminate corruption and
speed up clearance at border
posts.
Personal experiences
drove many of the answers,
with respondents providing
anecdotal evidence where
applicable. Many of the
experiences around borders
were similar for both sets of
respondents.
METHODOLOGY
The Africa Outlook survey was
distributed to the FTW digital
copy database as the primary
method of gathering responses
on a voluntary basis.
We also ran an advert in FTW
Online to generate additional
responses.
The survey, which was
conducted over a period of
one week, was broken up into
two respondent categories –
freight service providers (82
respondents) and cargo owners
(importers and exporters – 53
respondents).
MODES OF TRANSPORT USED BY CARGO OWNERS
Road 73.5%
Sea 62.2%
Air 45.2%
Rail 15%
It is interesting to note the low level of usage of rail transportation, which is
supplemented by a high level of road usage.
INFRASTRUCTURE: BEST AND WORST
Freight services providers rated transportation infrastructure
by country.
The top performers were:
Namibia, Botswana,
Swaziland, Kenya and
Ghana.
The bottom performers
were: DRC, Angola,
Nigeria, Mozambique and
Zimbabwe.
BELIEF IN COUNTRY GROWTH POTENTIAL
TOP 5
CARGO OWNERS
1. Mozambique
2. Tanzania
3. Kenya
4. Namibia
5. Botswana/Nigeria/Ghana
FREIGHT SERVICE PROVIDERS
1. Moqambique
2. Zambia
3. Namibia
4. Kenya
5. Tanzania
We asked both cargo owners and
freight service providers to rate the
countries they believed had the
best growth potential.
There were close correlations
in the top five, except for Zambia
which featured with freight service
providers but not with cargo
owners.
Both sets of respondents saw
Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and
Malawi as having the least growth
potential currently.
Ease of doing business can be
linked to growth potential. Many
countries that may not have the
best resources do well on growth
potential, while resource rich
countries, which are seen as more
difficult to do business with, are
absent from the top positions.
We asked both cargo owners and
freight service providers to rate the
countries they believed had the
best growth potential.
There were close correlations
in the top five, except for Zambia
which featured with freight service
providers but not with cargo
owners.
Both sets of respondents saw
Swaziland, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and
Malawi as having the least growth
potential currently.
Ease of doing business can be
linked to growth potential. Many
countries that may not have the
best resources do well on growth
potential, while resource rich
countries, which are seen as more
difficult to do business with, are
absent from the top positions.
CHALLENGES
Survey participants
commented that attempting
to broadly define problems
when dealing in Africa was
not an accurate reflection of
unique issues between various
countries.
The top challenges currently
are corruption, border
crossing, road infrastructure,
sourcing skilled local staff,
regulations and security. The
least challenging area was
insurance, followed by air
infrastructure and choice of
routing.
