Working Paper 64 - Linking Africa Through Regional Infrastructure

This paper makes a case for linking Africa through regional infrastructure by showing that soundinfrastructure is critical to any development process and thus impacts on the quality of development ofany country or region and consequently on the quality of life of its people. The critical role of infrastructurein the global economy is well articulated pointing out that as globalization and liberalization take root, itwill be increasingly difficult for Africa to remain competitive if its infrastructure systems continue to besub-standard. This paper is intended to provide policy options and practical proposals on measures toimprove the performance of Africa’s infrastructure. In discussing trade and investment the paper pointsto Africa’s historical trade patterns as a limiting factor to its infrastructure development. For the mostpart these have been outward looking, rather than inward looking rooted in the pattern of colonialexploitation, homogeneity of production and trading of primary commodities as well as high exportconcentration on one or a few products for the bulk of their export earnings. There is therefore, anurgent need to put Africa’s infrastructure in shape as well as the need for value added to stimulateinfrastructure development given the increased phenomenon of intra-industry trade which is viewed asenhancing regional integration and that of individual countries into the global economy. The paper proposesstrategies and policies for linking Africa through infrastructure and promoting private sector participationkey among which are a single integrated African market and the steps toward infrastructure integration.The conclusion of the paper is that, Africa needs a deliberate, systematic and concerted effort at thepractical level to integrate, upgrade and modernize regional infrastructure so that it becomes the catalystfor Africa’s growth. The regionally integrated corridor approach offers prospects for speedier integrationof infrastructure systems in Africa. The vision and ultimate objective for Africa should be to create asingle market of 750 million people that is competitive within itself and within the global economy. Acritical pre-requisite to this is regional infrastructure integration across Africa. The private sector alonecannot address all the requirements of Africa’s regional infrastructure needs even if all the conditionswere in place. The way forward is to put in place a goal oriented, results driven, continent-wideframework for addressing Africa’s regional infrastructure needs on an integrated basis. This shouldhave a practical approach to evolving an integrated, coordinated and efficient African regionalinfrastructure system that is supportive and facilitative of the ultimate goal of creating a vibrant singleAfrican market. The single major proposal and recommendation of this report is the creation of aFramework for African Regional Infrastructure Cooperation (FARIC). FARIC would not be an institutionor a body but a coordinated consultative mechanism to drive the process of linking and improving theefficiency of Africa’s infrastructure systems across Africa’s major regions. The aim should be as far aspossible, to harmonize policies and legal frameworks supporting regional infrastructure development,integration and operation across Africa as well as to ensure that regions learn from each other and sharebest practices.