UN cites poor infrastructure as Africa’s biggest limitation

Poor road, rail and harbour facilities add 30 to 40% to the cost of goods traded among African countries. The expense of moving Africa's imports to customers inland is on average 50% higher than shipping costs in other low-income regions. The lack of modern storage and marketing facilities is a major contributor to food insecurity, with losses to spoilage accounting for as much as 30 to 40% of grain harvests in some countries. These are the estimates provided to the United Nations’ (UN’s) African Renewal by the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA), whose members include the Group of Eight industrialised countries, multilateral development institutions and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Closing the infrastructure gap is therefore vital for Africa’s future. But this will not come cheaply. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last year called for more than $52 billion a year in public and private investments to close Africa's infrastructure gap by 2010.