The Economist March 26th 2022 45
Middle East & AfricaAfricaneconomiesTrade flaws
I
f time ismoney, then Beitbridge must be
a most expensive place. Late last year lor
ries carrying, among other things, cobalt
from Congo, copper from Zambia and tea
from Malawi snaked for miles as they wait
ed to cross the Limpopo river into South
Africa. Many were there for days. Some
drivers bribe their way to the front; 1,000
rand ($68) is the going rate. Others cannot.
In 2020 four drivers are said to have died in
their vehicles while waiting.
African politicians say they want to end
such bottlenecks. The African Continental
Free Trade Area (afcfta), so far ratified by
41 of Africa’s 55 countries, could boost the
region’s economies by making it easier to
trade among them. In 2020 just 18% of ex
ports were to other African countries (see
chart on next page), lower than the equiva
lent shares in North America (30%), Asia
(58%) or Europe (68%). More trade within
the region could lead to more jobs, higher
wages and less poverty.
The afcftapledges to grease the wheels
of trade in two ways. The first is by reduc
ing tariffs, especially between countries indifferent regional blocs, such as the South
ern African Development Community and
the East African Community. This could
boost intraAfrican trade by 1525%, reck
ons the imf. But double that effect would
come from reducing “nontariff barriers”,
the grit that really gums up trade.
Poor infrastructure is one such barrier.
Africa’s land area is big enough to accom
modate China, India, the contiguous Unit
ed States and much of Europe. Yet its rail
way network is not very much bigger than
France’s and Germany’s combined. Many
lines were built by colonial companies to
link mines to ports, rather than countries
to one another. And existing tracks are
struggling. South Africa’s state network
operator was eviscerated by corruption under Jacob Zuma, a former president. Newer
Chinesebuilt railways in Kenya and from
Djibouti to Ethiopia are underused, either
because they struggle to compete with
road freight or because they lack ancillary
infrastructure such as storage yards.
Ports are small and slow. Cargo waits for
more than two weeks on average, as
against less than a week in Asia, Europe
and Latin America, says cdcGroup, a Brit
ish developmentfinance institution. Han
dling costs are around 50% higher than in
other parts of the word, reckons the Afri
can Development Bank (afdb).
Some 8090% of freight goes by road, of
which there are not enough. Road density
is among the world’s lowest. And just
800,000km of the total of 2.8m in subSa
haran Africa are paved, says a report from
2018 by the ExportImport Bank of India.
Many roads are badly placed. Some dupli
cate colonial railways; too many are built
in the areas of powerful ethnic groups.
The imfreckons that if the quality of
Africa’s infrastructure were brought up to
the global average this would increase con
tinental trade by 7%. Surprisingly, though,
even bigger gains could be made by im
proving how trade flows—unblocking the
existing pipes, if you will, rather than in
stalling bigger ones. It reckons that if the
quality of Africa’s logistics rose to the glo
bal average, it would mean a boost of 12%.
The gains are large because the cost of lo
gistics in Africa is three to four times high
er than the world average, notes a recentB EITBRIDGE, JOHANNESBURG AND NAIROBI
It is still too hard to move goods around Africa→Alsointhissection
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