File Image: IOL
ADDIS ABABA - The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement will boost intra-African trade by around 40 percent with substantial benefits to the transport sectors, according to a latest estimate by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca).
“If fully implemented, the AfCFTA is expected to significantly increase traffic flows on all transport modes: road, rail, maritime and air,” Uneca said in its newly published report that assessed the nexus between the AfCFTA and Africa’s transport sector on Friday.
While presenting the report findings, Robert Lisinge, the chief of Uneca’s energy, infrastructure and services section in the private sector development and finance division, emphasised the crucial importance of fully implementing the AfCFTA so as to significantly boost intra-African trade, in which the transport sector would play a critical role.
The cost of equipment required by different transport modes to cope with AfCFTA is estimated at $411 billion (R6 trillion). However, fluctuations in transportation and construction prices might hamper renewal of Africa’s transport fleet and the upgrading of critical infrastructure links.
The report indicated that Africa’s aviation industry, which recorded a revenue loss of $8.2bn in 2021, required financial support.
Oliver Chinganya, a director of the Africa Centre for Statistics at Uneca, said the ongoing Ukraine crisis was likely to have an adverse effect on fuel prices across Africa, which in turn would increase the cost of transport on the continent for both people and commodities.
Based on the findings, Uneca called on African countries to mobilise resources for the transport sector; stabilise transport services and construction prices; implement priority infrastructure projects; implement the Inter-Governmental Agreement on the Trans-African Highways; and finance road safety.
Xinhua