AfCFTA: Africa's transport sector to benefit from free trade.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is expected to increase intra-African trade in transport services by nearly 50 per cent, according to the latest estimates by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

The estimates on, 'Implications of the African Continental Free Trade Area for demand for transport, infrastructure and services', released by ECA at the fifth African Business Forum on February 7, indicate that with AfCFTA in absolute terms, over 25 per cent of intra-African trade gains in services would go to transport alone; and nearly 40 per cent of the increase in Africa's services production would be in transport.

The research conducted by experts in the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section of ECA unpacks AfCFTA investment opportunity in the transport sector.

Vera Songwe, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA said the AfCFTA is 'expected to significantly increase traffic flows on all transport modes: Road, Rail, Maritime, and Air,' but that such gains will only be optimized if the AfCFTA is accompanied by implementation of regional infrastructure projects.

Robert Lisinge, Chief of the Energy, Infrastructure and Services Section at ECA, said 'roads currently carry the lion's share of freight in Africa.' He pointed out that the 'AfCFTA provides an opportunity to build Africa's railway network. It would increase intra-Africa freight demand by 28 per cent; demand for maritime freight will increase the most."

According to the research findings, AfCFTA requires 1,844,000 trucks for bulk cargo and 248,000 trucks for container cargo by 2030. This increases to 1,945,000 and 268,000 trucks respectively if planned infrastructure projects are also implemented.

The largest demand for trucks to support AfCFTA is within West Africa (39 per cent); demand from West to Southern Africa is 19.8 per cent and from Southern Africa to Western Africa by 9.9 per cent.

The key questions considered for research were how will implementation of AfCFTA affect demand for transport infrastructure and services? What would be the demand for different modes of transport, and what are the implications for investment in infrastructure development? ?

What would be the infrastructure and equipment needs for different transport modes??

Mr. Lisinge noted that AfCFTA and Africa's transport infrastructure programmes are intrinsically linked and should be implemented simultaneously. He said the Trans-African Highways (TAH) and...