A rapidly growing African middle class is becoming increasingly mobile – and their cars are slowing down the movement of goods. Traffic congestion is estimated to cause direct loss of time and productivity at an annual cost of roughly 4% of GDP (US$8 billion) in Cairo, US$19bn in Lagos, US$0.89bn in Dar es Salaam and US$0.57bn in Nairobi. The FTW team which regularly visits Maputo, Beira, Lusaka, the Copperbelt, Windhoek and Harare has seen the impact first-hand. Roads which were relatively clear just five years ago are now grid-locked for much of the day.
