Trade corridors are
helping open up Africa’s
15 land-locked countries
to international trade.
They are Botswana, Burkina
Faso, Burundi, Chad, Central
African Republic, Ethiopia,
Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, the
Niger, Rwanda, Swaziland,
Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Together they make up half
of the world’s 30 land-locked
developing countries.
Their economic development
is being stif led by the lack of
access to ports.
It is estimated that, on
average, transport costs in these
countries can be as high as 77%
of the value of exports.
Additional border crossings
and long distances from their
markets substantially increase
the cost of transport.
Another challenge is that most
land-locked African countries
have to rely on neighbours
which are themselves developing
countries, with weak transport
infrastructure.
Poor neighbours also make for
poor markets, and intra-African
trade levels remain low.
In comparison, landlocked
European countries are
surrounded by economically
developed markets.
As a result, the majority
of their exports do not have
to travel by sea, or they have
relatively less costly access to
ports.
Having recognised the
challenges a number of
governments across Africa are
working on establishing trade
corridors.
They are being assisted by
a number of international
agencies which are providing
funds and expertise.
As can be seen with the
rollout of the Maputo and
Walvis Bay corridors, it takes
much more than infrastructure
investment to make a corridor
work.
Often it is delays at the
borders which do more to add
costs and reduce efficiency than
anything else.
The seemingly simple solution
of establishing one-stop border
posts is itself fraught with
difficulties due to turf wars
between the customs authorities
on either side of the border and
the incompatibility of customs
systems.
Effective marketing of the
corridors is equally important.
Forwarders and shippers
seem to stick with what they
know works – until there are
major hiccups due to strikes
or natural disasters or cost
pressures encourage them to
look elsewhere.
Source: TradeMark Southern Africa.
CAPTION
Major transport corridors of southern Africa.
