Transport Development an Essential Element for the Growth of Africa
If we ponder over certain important points of consideration as in terms of role of infrastructure on the development of society then you would found transport to be very important for industrial as well as human growth of a society, culture and a nation. And Africa as a continent has failed in terms of connectivity by its transport for its being developing as developed community and continent.
The failure of transporting facilities in Africa further culminated into the lack of connectivity through out the Africa that is reflected through many important aspects as the basic nature of African trade has not changed since the end of colonial era. It is still exporter of raw materials that comes back into the continent in form of finished goods and labor is immensely cheap there. Internally, it has a few up-rooted and ill railway tracks. Still today it is very difficult to carry a container from center of Africa in Douala in Cameroon to Bangassou in the Central African Republic three weeks passing through arrival; roadblocks, bribes, pot-holes, malarial fevers, hyenas and soldiers.
However, situation has started improving to some extent with the advent and influence of some of the best International Companies running operation in Africa. Companies like DHL, Maersk, Dubai World and Chinese companies supplying oil and mining projects in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in collaboration with local government to improve infrastructure facilities in the respective areas of their operations.
Among the number of companies which are making effort to improve conditions in Africa one of the most import one that has paved path of improvement is Bolloré Africa Logistics, a division of Bolloré, a French industrial conglomerate. Bolloré handles 80% of West Africa’s exports (excluding oil) and 25% of east Africa. It has massive ambitions of exploiting economies of the Francophone and English-speaking parts of Africa and for the purpose it has plan of establishing a 26,000km (16,000 mile) pan-African network of using the entire possible available infrastructure including long sections of transit by barge down the Niger, Congo, and Nile rivers into the deeper parts of the continent.
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