NEPAD to meet over infrastructure development

Kampala

Africa stakeholders including business executives and policy makers will between October 13 and 15 meet in Johannesburg, South Africa to discus infrastructure development. The two-day annual NEPAD summit will discuss the development of the roads and railway networks, energy, water and ICT.

According to a recently published World Bank report, Africa's poor infrastructure is blamed for the low progress on economic growth, low global competitiveness and poverty eradication. In the report, Ms Obiageli Ezekwesili, the Africa World Bank vice president said: “Modern infrastructure is the backbone of any economy and the lack of it inhibits economic growth.”
The report said African countries find it difficult to compete favourably with their counterparts in the west in the absence of modern infrastructure such as transport systems, power, water supply and information and communications technology.

The report, “Africa’s Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation”, estimates that electricity, water, roads, railways and ICT cut national economic growth by 2 per cent every year and reduce business productivity by over 40 per cent.

Although the rate of mobile phone penetration on the African continent has risen in the past two years, deficiencies in power infrastructures still impede growth in the region."The need for economic prosperity to match Africa's population growth is putting pressure on all forms of commercial transport- roads, railways, air and on the sea ports," Ms Jolly Tanitha, the summit director, said.

Issues including clean water and sanitation, water for industry and agriculture, national policies and strategies, generation and distribution of power to keep up with the increasing demand, climate change problems, the drive for alternative sources of energy will feature in the discussions.

The World Bank estimates about Shs210 trillion will be required annually over the next decade to address infrastructural problems in Africa with the biggest portion of the budget amounting to about Shs113 billion needed to address the power supply crisis that is hindering growth.