Sub-Saharan Africa missing out on global shipping boom, says Transnet
Sub-Saharan Africa is missing out on a global shipping boom because of poor infrastructure, Transnet Group CEO Siyabonga Gama said at a conference on Tuesday. Worldwide shipping container volumes are set to break the 200-million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) threshold for the first time in 2017, Gama said at the inaugural two-day Terminal Operators Conference Africa 2017 at the Durban International Convention Centre. But the poor and inadequate state of much of Africa’s transport network was holding many countries back from sharing this bonanza. "The combination of years of under-investment and exploitation has meant that African ports, roads and railways were mainly designed and built to facilitate transportation of raw materials and resources to markets outside the continent," Gama said. The 2017 African Economic Outlook report by the African Development Bank, released earlier this year, has shown that from 2007 to 2015, Africa’s light manufactured goods imports tripled to rea...
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