Africa: congestion on urban road networks costs the continent 314 billion USD a year

The Alstom Group recently published its report entitled “The role of urban rail in sustainable Africa”.
The report states that congestion on urban road networks costs Africa around $314 billion a year.

According to the study, the cost implications are the accumulation of several negative externalities such as lost productivity due to time lost in traffic jams, increased carbon emissions, air pollution, accidents, etc.

“If the modal structure of current transport systems is not reconfigured to reduce the pressure on roads, by 2030 the loss of revenue could reach 488 billion USD.
Currently, railroads account for just 1% of traffic in African cities, according to the document. In a modal reconfiguration scenario proposed by Alstom, an increase in the share of urban rail to 10% in 2030 and 20% in 2050 would make it possible to take nearly 8 million cars off the road every day in 2030 and nearly 29 million in 2050”, the study states.

Taking Egypt as an example, the report reveals: “Greater Cairo’s urban rail network currently avoids the use of around 175,000 cars a day. Similarly, the major rail projects currently underway should eventually avoid the use of 595,000 cars. This will help to significantly reduce congestion-related costs, estimated at 8 billion USD for Cairo in 2010, while forecasts predict that they will reach 17 billion USD in 2030.”

The other major consequence of congestion is higher transport costs for passengers and more expensive goods.

According to the AFC’s “State of Africa’s Infrastructure Report 2024”, transport in Africa represents up to 40% of the cost price of products on the African market.

AGNES KAYEMBE