Improved infrastructure is absolutely vital to Africa’s economic and social development. National leaders appear to be aware of this – at the African summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Cape Town in May 2013, the general sentiment was one of unprecedented collaboration. Accordingly the continent’s infrastructure projects over the next decade or so are set to be even more cooperative and inter-regional in nature.
Africa’s financial straits are not a given; the continent possesses almost two thirds of the world’s uncultivated arable land, a large and ready workforce, rich mineral reserves, and more, but without adequate infrastructure it will remain unable to profit from these resources. Launched in 2010, the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), headed by the African Development Bank (AfDB), aims to implement infrastructure projects of $68 billion by 2020. These projects are all aimed at galvanising Africa’s economic development by removing the infrastructure impediment.
Until recently education and health were the two areas of primary concern in connection with Africa, but more and more governments and organisations are turning their attention to infrastructure, feeling that this aspect is as critical, if not more so, to the future of the continent. The areas of critical interest in African infrastructure are roads, railways, ports, water and energy.
In terms of the Pan-African agenda, what is required is the development of cross-border projects, such as transport corridors and transnational water and power supplies. A rough estimate of Africa’s current road coverage is 34 percent, while its electricity access average is at only 30 percent. Regional collaboration is particularly critical to landlocked nations, which can pay almost double to export their goods compared with coastal nations.
So what are 10 of the top infrastructure projects currently underway or under negotiation in Africa?
1. The Abidjan-Lagos Motorway
The Abidjan-Lagos Motorway, which is still in the planning phase, will connect five West African countries (from west to east they are the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria) along a predominantly coastal route. The total cost of the motorway is expected to be $8 billion, and construction should begin in 2015.
2. The Mombasa-Kigali Rail Link
The Mombasa-Kigali Rail Link will be a 2,935 km line connecting Kenya’s port of Mombasa with the Rwandan capital of Kigali by way of Kampala, Uganda. At present there is only a colonial-era, narrow-gauge line between Mombasa and Kampala, while Rwanda has no link at all. A $13.5-billion project beginning this year and set for completion in 2018, it will help to alleviate traffic on roads ill-equipped to cope with growing transportation demands.
3. The Grand Inga Dam
The Grand Inga Dam is a hydroelectric project in the planning in the DRC, a country suffering from an extreme power shortage (the World Bank estimates that only 11.1 percent of the population has access to electricity). The dam will be built on the Congo River at Inga Falls and could potentially turn out to be the world’s largest. It is foreseen as producing 40,000 megawatts (MW) of energy, a figure that is double that of China’s Three Gorges Dam. It is thought to be an altogether $80-billion undertaking, with construction scheduled to begin in 2015.
4. Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project
The Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project is a planned hydroelectric power station along the Kagera River in Rwanda. It aims to produce 80 MW of power to increase energy supplies in Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. The project is supported by the World Bank, the AfDB, and the International Development Association.
5. Lake Turkana Wind Power Project
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is a private enterprise, many years into development, in the northeast of Kenya. It is Africa’s largest wind farm scheme. Upon completion the farm will comprise 365 wind turbines and will be able to provide Kenya’s national grid with 300 MW of clean power.
6. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam, formerly called the Millennium Dam, is a massive project underway on the Blue Nile, close to South Sudan’s border. Begun in 2011, the project is headed by Italian engineering firm Salini Costruttori and is due for completion in 2017. Once completed the dam will flood a forested area in northwest Ethiopia of 1,680 square kilometres, an area twice the size of Lake Tana, Ethiopia’s largest lake. It is a controversial project, as both Sudan and Egypt are concerned Ethiopia will possess control over their primary water supply.
7. Mtwara Corridor Development Project
The Mtwara Corridor Development Project is an initiative begun in 2004 by Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. It encompasses 300 infrastructure projects focused on the construction and improvement of various lake and sea ports, railways, roads, bridges, airports, ferries, and pipelines. One of the primary projects is the Manda-Mchuchuma-Mtwara line from Lake Malawi to the coast. The overall vision is a transportation corridor that will afford all parties easier access to Tanzania’s port of Mtwara, thereby facilitating trade and economic growth in the region.
8. The Jasper Power Project
The Jasper Power Project, run by renewable energy firm SolarReserve, involves building a 96 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Northern Cape of South Africa. The project, which has received a $12-billion investment from Google, aims to generate 18 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy by 2030.
9. The North South Corridor (NSC) Aid for Trade Programme
The NSC Aid for Trade Programme spans eight countries and involves 157 various projects focused on the development of the region’s air, port, road, rail and energy infrastructure. It was conceived by COMESA, SADC and EAC and is aimed at the promotion of intra-regional trade. The NSC Programme will connect Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam with the mines of the DRC and Zambia, which in turn will be connected with South Africa’s port of Durban.
10. The Trans-Kalahari Railway
The Mmamabula-Walvis Bay Trans-Kalahari Railway is a project funded by the Governments of Namibia and Botswana, the World Bank and CIC Energy. The line will be about 1,500 km in length, linking the Mmamabula coalfield of landlocked Botswana with the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia. The project is still in development phase.
Africa’s infrastructure development projects are bold and forward-thinking, with a clear focus on Pan-Africanist cooperation. It is widely understood that countries within any region sink or swim together, and it is this understanding that has prompted renewed focus on intra-regional, collaborative projects. In the words of South Africa’s Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, “For the next 10 years or so let us not talk about competition but how do we complement each other”.
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