Driving infrastructure development in Africa

Driving infrastructure
development is at the heart
of the Nepad Business
Foundation’s Africa
Infrastructure Desk (Afri-
ID) which has identified
five projects across the
continent on which to focus.
According to the
organisation’s Kudzanayi
Bangure, the argument
for the role of integrated
infrastructure in unlocking
intra-Africa trade has been
made time and time again.
“Ensuring we drive that
infrastructure development
is critical and therefore the
aim of Afri-ID is to address
one of the continent’s
most persistent problems
and make infrastructure
projects bankable.”
The five projects
currently on the agenda,
said Bangure, are the
establishment of a regional
rolling stock leasing pool,
the rehabilitation of seven
berths at the port in Dar es
Salaam, the Mtwara port
and EDZ development,
increasing cargo to rail on
the Zambian-South Africa
corridor and increasing
cargo to rail on the
Tanzanian- South Africa
corridor.
Bangure said these were
identified from an in initial
665 projects.