Economic Community of West African States Infrastructure:a regional perspective

Infrastructure improvements boosted growth in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by one percentage point per capita per year during 1995-2005, primarily thanks to growth in information and communication technology. Deficient power infrastructure held growth back by 0.1 percent. Raising the region's infrastructure to the level of Mauritius could boost growth by 5 percentage points. Overall, infrastructure in the 15 ECOWAS countries ranks consistently behind southern Africa across many indicators. However, there is parity in access to household services -- water, sanitation, and power. ECOWAS has a well-developed regional road network, though sea corridors and ports need attention. Surface transport is expensive and slow, owing to cartelization, restrictive regulations, and delays.

There is no regional rail network. Air transport has improved despite the lack of a strong hub-and-spoke structure. Safety remains a concern. Electrical power, the most expensive and least reliable in Africa, reaches 50 percent of the population but meets just 30 percent of demand. Regional power trading would bring substantial benefits if Guinea could become a hydropower exporter. Prices for critical ICT services are relatively high. Recent panregional initiatives have improved roaming. New projects are underway to provide access and improved services to unconnected countries. Completing and maintaining ECOWAS's infrastructure will require sustained spending of $1.5 billion annually for a decade, with one-third going to power.

Although the necessary spending is only 1 percent of regional GDP, some countries' share is between 5 and 25 percent of national GDP. Clearly, external assistance will be needed

World Bank.Author:  Ranganathan, Rupa;Foster,Vivien. Document Date:2011/12/01.Document Type:  Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number:  WPS5899. Volume No: 1 of 1

ECOWAS's infrastructure: a regional perspective

x

Botswana's infrastructure: a continental perspective

Infrastructure made a net contribution of just over two percentage points to Botswana's improved per capita growth performance in recent years. Raising the country’s infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could boost annual growth by about 1.2 percentage points. Botswana has made significant infrastructure progress in recent years, spanning the transport, water and sanitation, power, and mobile telephony sectors. But the country still faces a number of important infrastructure challenges.

The most pressing is in the power sector, where the country is economically and financially exposed to a lack of generation capacity and insufficient power supply, leaving the economy vulnerable to power price shocks and load shedding. Botswana's international transport connections and Internet connectivity also lag behind those of comparable countries. Botswana's overall resource envelope of $800 million per year surpasses its $785 million needs estimate.

Nevertheless, it loses $68 million a year to inefficiencies and faces a funding gap of $305 million per year, entirely in the power sector, traceable to the quality of spending decisions. Botswana will be in a good position to meet its infrastructure goals if it can reduce inefficiencies, increase public-sector receipts, and attract more public funding.

Author: Dominguez-Torres,Carolina;Briceno-Garmendia,Cecilia.Document Date:2011/11/01.Document Type:Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number:WPS5887. Volume No: 1 of 1

Botswana's infrastructure: a continental perspective

Mozambique's infrastructure: a continental perspective

In the last 10 years, Mozambique's economy has grown steadily at an impressive rate of 7.7 percent per year, driven by the service sector, light industry, and agriculture. This pace is expected to continue or even increase with the massive influx of already-planned investment on the order of $15-20 billion.

Mozambique's infrastructure is well developed in some sectors, including its east-west transport infrastructure, power grid, and water and sanitation networks. But the nation still faces critical challenges in these and other areas, including developing north-south transport connections, properly managing the water system, and expanding hydroelectric generation to meet potential.

Mozambique spent about $664 million per year on infrastructure during the late 2000s, with as much as $204 million lost annually to inefficiencies. Comparing spending needs with existing spending and potential efficiency gains leaves an annual funding gap of $822 million per year.

Mozambique could reduce inefficiency losses by positioning itself as a key power exporter. The country could reach infrastructure targets in 20 years through a combination of increased finance, improved efficiency, and cost-reducing innovations.

Author: Dominguez-Torres, Carolina ; Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia. Document Date:2011/11/01.Document Type:  Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number:  WPS5885. Volume No:1 of 1

Mozambique's infrastructure: a continental perspective

The Democratic Republic of Congo's Infrastructure

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces possibly the most daunting infrastructure challenge on the African continent. Conflict has seriously damaged most infrastructure networks. Vast geography, low population density, extensive forestlands, and criss-crossing rivers complicate the development of new networks. Progress has been made since the return of peace in 2003.

A privately funded GSM network now provides mobile telephone signals to two-thirds of the population. External funding has been secured to rebuild the country's road network, and domestic air traffic has grown. Modest investments could harness inland waterways for low-cost transport. Much more substantial investments in hydropower would enable the DRC to meet its own energy demands cheaply while exporting vast quantities of power. One of the country's most immediate infrastructure challenges is to reform the national power utility and increase power generation and delivery. Capacity must increase by 35 percent over the period 2006-15 to meet domestic demand. The dilapidated condition of both road and rail infrastructure presents another challenge.

To meet the target defined in the report, investment in the country's infrastructure must increase from $700 million to $5.3 billion per year over the next decade, a staggering 75 percent of 2006 GDP. New infrastructure technologies, the elimination of inefficiencies, and cross-border finance (for hydropower development) could cut the annual funding gap in half. Recently, the country secured $4 billion in external finance commitments for infrastructure, enabling increases in budget allocations for public investment.

Author: Foster,Vivien;Benitez,Daniel Alberto.Document Date: 2011/03/01.Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number: WPS5602.Volume No:  1 of 1

PDF Version
Text Version

Ghana's Infrastructure

Infrastructure contributed just over one percentage point to Ghana's annual per capital GDP growth during the 2000s. Raising the country’s infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could boost the annual growth rate by more than 2.7 percentage points. Ghana has an advanced infrastructure platform when compared with other low-income countries in Africa. The country’s coverage levels for rural water, electricity, and GSM signals are impressive.

A large share of the road network is in good or fair condition. Institutional reforms have been adopted in the ICT, ports, roads, and water supply sectors. Ghana’s most pressing challenges lie in the power sector, where outmoded transmission and distribution assets, rapid demand growth, and periodic hydrological shocks leave the country reliant on high-cost oil-based generation. Exceptionally high losses in water distribution leave little to reach end customers, who are thus exposed to intermittent supplies. Addressing Ghana's infrastructure challenges will require raising annual expenditures to $2.3 billion.

The country already spends about $1.2 billion per year on infrastructure, equivalent to about 7.5 percent of GDP. A further $1.1 billion is lost each year to inefficiencies, notably underpricing of power.Ghana's annual infrastructure funding gap is about $0.4 billion per year, chiefly related to power and water. Following its recent oil discoveries, Ghana can raise additional public funding from increased tax receipts. The country has several strong areas on which to build and a solid economic base from which to fund incremental efforts.

Author: Foster,Vivien; Pushak, Nataliya;Document Date: 2011/03/01.Document Type:Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number:WPS5600.Volume No: 1 of 1

PDF Version
Text Version

Zambia's Infrastructure

Infrastructure improvements contributed 0.6 percentage points to Zambia's annual per capital GDP growth over the past decade, mostly because of exponential growth in information and communication services. The power sector, by contrast, pulled the growth rate down by more than 0.1 percentage points. Improving Zambia's infrastructure endowment could boost growth by up to 2 percentage points per year.

 Zambia's relatively high generation capacity and power consumption are accompanied by fewer power outages than elsewhere in the region. But Zambia's power sector emphasizes the mining industry, while household electrification is about half that in other resource-rich countries. Zambia's power tariffs, among the lowest in Africa, are less than half the level needed to accelerate electrification and keep pace with mining sector demands. In power as in just about every other aspect of infrastructure, rural Zambians lag well behind their African peers. In a country where 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood, this represents a huge drag on the economy.

Zambia would need to spend an average of $1.6 billion a year over the decade 2006-15 to develop the infrastructure found in the rest of the developing world. This is equivalent to 20 percent of Zambia's GDP and about double the country's rate of investment in recent years. Closing the country's annual infrastructure funding gap of $500 million requires raising more funds, looking for more cost-effective ways to meet infrastructure targets, and eliminating the inefficiencies that cause the loss of $300 million annually

Author:  Foster,Vivien ;Dominguez, Carolina.Document Date:  2011/03/01.Document Type:Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number: WPS5599.Volume No: 1 of 1

PDF Version
Text Version

Ethiopia's Infrastructure

Infrastructure contributed 0.6 percentage points to Ethiopia's annual per capita GDP growth over the last decade. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could add an additional 3 percentage points to infrastructure's contribution to growth. Ethiopia's infrastructure successes include developing Ethiopia Airlines, a leading regional carrier; upgrading its network of trunk roads; and rapidly expanding access to water and sanitation.The country's greatest infrastructure challenge lies in the power sector, where a further 8,700 megawatts of generating plant are needed over the next decade, implying a doubling of current capacity.

The transport sector faces the challenges of low levels of rural accessibility and inadequate road maintenance. Ethiopia’s ICT sector currently suffers from a poor institutional and regulatory framework.

Addressing Ethiopia's infrastructure deficit will require a sustained annual expenditure of $5.1 billion over the next decade. The power sector alone requires $3.3 billion annually, with $1 billion needed to facilitate regional power trading. That level of spending represents 40 percent of the country's GDP and a tripling of the $1.3 billion spent annually in the mid-2000s. As of 2006, there was an annual funding gap of $3.5 billion. Improving road maintenance, removing inefficiencies in power (notably underpricing), and privatizing ICT services could shrink the gap.

But Ethiopia needs a significant increase in its already proportionally high infrastructure funding and careful handling of public and private investments if it is to reach its infrastructure targets within a reasonable time.

Author: Foster,Vivien; Morella,Elvira. Document Date: 2011/03/01. Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number:  WPS5595. Volume No: 1 of 1

PDF Version
Text Version

Kenya's Infrastructure

In the past decade, infrastructure contributed 0.5 percentage points to Kenya's annual per capita GDP growth. Raising the country’s infrastructure endowment to that of Africa's middle-income countries could increase that contribution by 3 percentage points. Several accomplishments are notable. More than 90 percent of the population has access to GSM cell signals.

A successful public-private partnership in air transport has made Kenya's airline a top carrier in the region and its international airport a key gateway to Africa. Institutional reforms in the power sector have reduced the burden of subsidies on the public by approximately 1 percent of GDP. But the power sector continues to pose Kenya's greatest infrastructure challenge. Over the next decade, current capacity will have to double.

A second challenge is to improve the efficiency of operations at the Port of Mombasa. Other concerns include low levels of access to household services, underfunding of road maintenance, and negative progress on the Millennium Development Goals for water supply and sanitation. Addressing Kenya's infrastructure deficit will require sustained expenditures of approximately $4 billion per year (20 percent of GDP) over the next decade. As of 2006, Kenya needed and additional $2.1 billion per year (11 percent of GDP) to meet that funding goal.

The gap could be halved through the use of more efficient technologies to meet infrastructure targets in the transport and WSS sectors. If Kenya is unable to increase infrastructure spending, it could nevertheless meet infrastructure targets in 18 years by eliminating existing inefficiencies in infrastructure sectors.

Author: Briceno-Garmendia, Cecilia M.; Shkaratan, Maria;Document Date: 2011/03/01.Document Type:  Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number: WPS5596.Volume No: 1 of 1

PDF Version
Text Version

Liberia's infrastructure

Liberia's power generating capacity and national grid were completely demolished during 14 years of civil war. Piped water access fell from 15 percent of the population in 1986 to less than 3 percent in 2008. War also left the national road network in a state of severe disrepair. Since the return of peace, the port of Monrovia has resumed normal operations under private management, and progress has been made in securing donor finance for road reconstruction.

Liberia has also successfully liberalized its mobile telephone markets, with low-priced access surging to 40 percent in 2009. Liberia's starkest challenge lies in funding a more cost-effective power sector. The country's generation capacity is barely one-tenth of the benchmark level of Africa's other low-income countries.

The cost of generating power is exorbitant, and the power tariff is three times the regional average. Addressing Liberia's public infrastructure needs will require sustained expenditures of between $350 million and $600 million annually, mostly to fund power and transport. In the mid-2000s, with all sources of spending taken into account, Liberia spent around $90 million a year on infrastructure.

An additional $17 million was lost to inefficiencies, such as underpricing of power. Because Liberia suffers an annual funding gap of between $250 million and $500 million per year, it will need a combination of increased finance, improved efficiency, and cost-reducing innovations to reach its infrastructure targets in a reasonable time. Without these, Liberians may have to wait for up to 40 years to achieve the targets.

Author:  Foster, Vivien ; Pushak, Nataliya. Document Date:  2011/03/01. Document Type:  Policy Research Working Paper. Report Number:  WPS5597. Volume No: 1 of 1

PDF Version
Text Version

Malawi's infrastructure

Infrastructure contributed 1.2 percentage points to Malawi's annual per capital GDP growth over the past decade. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region’s middle-income countries could increase that contribution by 3.5 percentage points. Malawi's successes in infrastructure development include reaching the Millennium Development Goals for water and making GSM telephone signals widely available without public subsidy. Challenges include improving the reliability and sustainability of the power sector, raising funding for road maintenance, preventing overengineering of roads, enhancing market access in agricultural areas, and lowering the cost of information and communications services. T

he latter goal may be achievable by securing competitive access to the new submarine infrastructure on the East African coast. Addressing Malawi's infrastructure deficit would require sustained expenditures of almost $600 million per year over the decade 2006-15. During the mid-2000s, the country spent close to $200 million per year, about half of which went to the transport sector.

Because of widespread inefficiencies -- underpricing of power, improperly maintained roads, and utility distribution losses --about $200 million is wasted each year. But even if those inefficiencies were eliminated, Malawi would still face an annual infrastructure funding gap of almost $300 million. That gap could be cut to $100 million by engaging in regional trade of electricity, using lower-cost technologies in water and sanitation, and adopting less-ambitious road-building technologies. If inefficiencies were eliminated and recent spending levels sustained, Malawi could reach its infrastructure targets within 16 years.

Author: Foster,Vivien; Shkaratan, Maria; Document Date: 2011/03/01; Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number:WPS5598.Volume No: 1 of 1. Disclosure Date: 2011/03/01

PDF Version

Text Version

Cote d'Ivoire's Infrastructure: a continental perspective

Infrastructure contributed 1.8 percentage points to Cote d'Ivoire's annual per capita GDP growth over the mid-2000s before conflict began to erase the country's infrastructure and its growth contributions. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to the level of the region's middle-income countries could boost the growth rate by a further 2 percentage points.

Private sector contracts signed in the 1990s resulted in improved operational performance and funding for investments in the water, power, transport, and ICT sectors. Impressively, those contracts survived the crisis and delivered uninterrupted service. But private investment flows have decreased since the mid-2000s. Cote d'Ivoire's most pressing infrastructural challenge will be to regain the financial equilibrium needed to restore a reliable energy supply. Reestablishing the prominence of Abidjan's port will require investments in terminal capacity and road and rail infrastructure upgrades on hinterland linkages. The underfunding of road maintenance and poor sanitation are additional challenges.

Cote d'Ivoire's annual infrastructure spending was $750 million in the mid-2000s, with going to power sector operations and maintenance. If the underpricing of power and other inefficiencies (valued at $200 million annually) were eliminated, the country’s annual infrastructure funding gap would amount to $1 billion, and infrastructure goals could be reached within 20 years. Cote d'Ivoire's has relatively good prospects for bridging its funding gap by raising public investment from its low current level, choosing more efficient technologies, and harnessing additional private investment for infrastructure.

Author: Foster, Vivien; Pushak,Nataliya;Document Date: 2011/03/01.Document Type: Policy Research Working Paper.Report Number: WPS5594.Volume No: 1 of 1. Disclosure Date:  2011/03/01

PDF

Text

<><>

Text Version*

<><>