With the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA starting to gain traction, governments and logistics providers are investing in trade corridors to increase the competitiveness of their routes, exporters and traders. There are around 80 development corridors spanning the continent. Service levels are being raised and therefore logistics costs reduced through investments in the road and rail infrastructure, more streamlined customs procedures and multimodal depots. But there needs to be a holistic approach. Investment in soft infrastructure regulatory and policy frameworks, implementation and monitoring agencies, accountability relations, etc is just as important as the actual design and creation of hard infrastructure, says University of Cape Town researcher Sibusiso Maneli in a study on African transport corridors. Corridors are also being greened by reducing the carbon footprint of the transportation of the cargo. Green trade corridors are not a luxury, they are essential, says Sheetal Kumar, head of client coverage corporate and institutional banking at Bank One. With climate change increasingly disrupting transport, whether through floods in West Africa or heat- induced pavement failures in the east, corridor design must evolve. Africa cannot afford infrastructure that collapses under climate pressure, she says. A German government-sponsored 7 million programme provided technical assistance between 2021 and 2024 to strengthen African Union Commission AUC and African Union Development Agency Auda-Nepad capacities to support low-carbon and climate- resilient infrastructure projects in trade corridors. This has led to the establishment of the Green Infrastructure Corridors for Intra-African Trade Programme, which is jointly implemented by Auda-Nepad, the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency CCTTFA and Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH GIZ. The focus is on what is called the Central Corridor linking the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam to Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Auda-Nepads Service Delivery Mechanism SDM is providing technical advisory services to selected infrastructure projects in the Central Corridor and support to mobilising funding for further development, with a focus on access to climate/green finance. After screening over 50 infrastructure projects, there is a pipeline of eight transport infrastructure projects receiving advisory services. Other major corridor developments include: l East Africa: major activity around Mombasa port SGR links and continued strategic planning for Lapsset, but Lapsset progress has been slow and remains constrained by funding and security. l Horn of Africa: Djibouti Ethiopia corridor remains a critical regional lifeline multilateral projects aim to improve customs, roads and multimodal links. l Southern Africa: SADCs NorthSouth and Maputo corridors are seeing renewed investment and coordination customs modernisation, SMART corridor pilots. Nacala continues as an important alternative route for Malawi/Zambia. ER
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'There is value in reviewing SACU and its benefits for all members.' Economist Wandile Sihlobo.
