East Africa transport corridors no rivals

The Northern (Mombasa) and Central (Dar es Salaam) Corridors are important conduits linking the coast and enabling flow of goods and people to the East African hinterland, including landlocked countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

The routes are important catalysts for the development of transport systems in East Africa. While some hold the view that the corridors are in competition, they provide alternatives for routing of freight and people, also between road and rail modes of transport.

It goes without saying that transport development undoubtedly needs to transform in East Africa, and there is no path to change without both near and long-term funding for unified transport operations.

Properly developed and operated cross-border corridors with ideal conditions, facilities and institutions in place are one solution for reducing transport costs and times for developing countries, especially those that are land-locked.

However, challenges abound when it comes to a unified approach to setting up, running and coordinating the activities along these corridors.

One challenge that arises time and again is the lack of funding. Most of the East African nations are currently under serious financial constraints to implement significant transport projects in roads, rail, airports and ports.

In addition, there exist long procurement cycles when Development Finance Institution or DFI funding is used. This leads to unfortunate delays, and it sometimes takes many years to start projects.

To their credit, East African countries have had discussions on corridor planning. The focus is also shifting from hard to soft infrastructure.

This means providing only infrastructure is not good enough – border and corridor flows also need to improve to remove or cut costly delays.

Significant efforts have been undertaken to remove the disconnect between countries for the implementation of infrastructure projects and system harmonisation in addition to the agreement on cross-border charges and systems.

For regional cooperation and partnerships to bear fruit in achieving a unified approach to transport planning in East Africa, the Regional Economic Councils (RECs) need to be engaged and empowered to carry the mantle and this can only be achieved if they are adequately supported by DFIs to fulfil this role.

The EAC especially has made significant strides to promote regional integration and remove blockages in trade flows between member states.

Zutari, an infrastructure engineering and advisory practice, has been involved in many of these initiatives, including the development of the EAC Transport Master Plan as well as DFI-funded studies to gauge and improve corridor performance.

There is no single magic bullet that will help East African countries attain a unified approach to infrastructure development and operations.

However, organisational streamlining within and alignment between countries is a great starting point. This also helps in the reduction of transport costs.

Furthermore, by harnessing technology, road management systems and road user charging systems can be adopted alongside well-managed border processing systems, which will eventually improve asset management, provide adequate funding for roads, and accelerate processing times at border posts.

With the onset of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement, African countries need not reinvent the wheel when establishing transport connectivity, and East Africa has no choice but to take a unified approach to infrastructure development if we are to enjoy lower transport costs.

Source: Business Daily