Cover_Rebuilding West Africas Food Potential

Chapter 1. West Africa staple food systems: An overview of trends and indicators of demand, supply, and trade 13

Figure 6. Cost of electricity in some West African countries (CFAF/ Kwh)

Source: World Bank, CEM Burkina Faso (2009)

C. Regulation and corruption

Enforcement and credibility of the rule of law and the formal regulatory framework are major factors
determining the business environment and their deficiency can pose a serious impediment to investment and
to food agroprocessing development. A study by the World Bank, covering many West African countries,
quantified these costs for private enterprises. Results are summarized in Table 2 below. The addition of security
costs and costly time to import and export costs means that between 5 and 8 percent of sales are lost due to
the aforementioned inefficiencies, putting a strong constraint on overall competitiveness.

Table 2. Indirect and invisible costs as percentages of firms’ sales

Indirect costs Invisible costs

Transport Telecom Customs Losses

due to

power

outages

Cost of

manager’s

time to

deal with

regula-

tions

Cost of

corruption:

informal

payments

to get

things

done

Cost of

security

measures

Total

indirect

and

invisible

costs

Burkina

Faso, 2006

2.23 0.70 1.63 1.20 0.05 1.48 0.86 8.20

Benin,

2004

• 
  
  
  
  • 0.48 1.16 0.06 4.27 0.57 6.55
  
  
  
  

Mali,

2007

1.96 0.86 0.26 1.39 0.05 0.24 0.12 4.60

Uganda,

2006

1.08 0.50 0.52 28.16 0.06 2.18 0.43 32.93

Zambia,

2007

0.61 0.71 0.68 1.79 0.04 0.05 0.93 4.81

Source: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (2004-2007) Estimates are based on at least 15 observations.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Benin

Burkina FasoCôte d'Ivoire

Mali Niger

SenegalGh

ana

Nigeri

a

Low voltage

Medium voltage