African ministers and government officials in charge of infrastructure and transport called on the African Development Bank on Thursday to step up support and lead efforts to promote closer integration across the continent and create the world's largest free trade area.
"We congratulate the Bank, but it needs to go further and bring together the partners to achieve the Forum's objectives, to focus on corridors and the rail network. We need to give ourselves the means to make progress on the recommendations", said Luc Sorgho, Burkina Faso's Minister for Infrastructure and Access. Sorgho was speaking during a high-level panel held shortly before the close of the second edition of the Transport Forum in Abidjan.
Solomon Quaynor, African Development Bank Group Vice President for the Private Sector, Infrastructure and Industrialisation, welcomed the discussions of cross-border policies and strategies and ministers' proposed solutions to bottlenecks. "Your participation in this Forum, with such bilateral exchanges, is stimulating," he told them.
Cross-border corridors are imperative for all countries. They enable the free flow of goods and people and better equip the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to achieve its intra-African trade objectives. That will make the continent the largest free trade area in the world.
Matar Ceesay, Permanent Secretary of the Gambia's Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, commended "the wealth of discussions on intra-African connectivity, which absolutely must be strengthened. Corridors help to speed up African integration. We need to make progress on the Abidjan-Lagos Highway, the Abidjan-Bamako-Dakar motorway and other trans-regional routes. Barriers must be removed, and integration strengthened", he added.
To improve trade on a continental scale, it will also be necessary for countries to cooperate more closely, the ministers acknowledged.
"Why aren't we meeting the targets?" asked Joshua Sacco, Zimbabwe's Deputy Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Development. In his view, sub-regional bodies such as ECOWAS and SADC, among others, need to be mobilised to achieve the objectives formulated by the States.
"The African Development Bank has provided adequate support for the establishment of corridors, but I recommend that a Rail Corridor Facility be set up to increase the volume of trade by rail", suggested Burundi's Minister of Infrastructure, Public Works and Social Housing, Dieudonné Ndayikunda Dukundane.
Good governance is also a key issue, according to Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri, Tunisia's Minister of Public Works and Housing, who expressed the hope that "the African experts will stay in touch after this Forum and strengthen their relations for greater cooperation".
Faced with the challenges of economic integration, connectivity and transport fluidity, African countries have an obligation to strengthen their cooperation to accelerate the implementation of best practices. As the leading infrastructure financing institution in Africa, the African Development Bank is a partner of choice for achieving these objectives.
Eric Ntagengerwa, Head of the Transport and Mobility Division at the African Union Commission, urged the ministers attending the Abidjan Forum to take the lead and "strengthen our cooperation with the African Development Bank".
The second edition of the Transport Forum took place from 18-20 September at the initiative of the African Development Bank Group. Many ministers and sector heads from across the continent attended, including David Umahi of Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Public Works, Jean Jacques Bouya, Republic of Congo's Minister of Development, Land Equipment and Public Works, John Mutorwa, Namibia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works and Transport, and Ambrosio Sitoe, Permanent Secretary at Mozambique's Ministry of Transport and Communications.
