Africa’s trade corridors have long played a vital role in connecting the continent to global markets. The conversation today is no longer about moving exports to ports; there is increasing focus on internal trade corridors, logistics infrastructure, inland connectivity and regional integration that connect manufacturers, farmers, mines and businesses across borders to create value within Africa. Africa’s next phase of economic growth depends on connecting African economies to one another, rather than simply to ports that export African value overseas.
Both trade agreements including the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and new transport infrastructure are accelerating this shift across the continent.
AfCFTA is the world’s largest trade area by participating countries and is expected to expand the size of Africa’s economy to US$29 trillion by 2050. Redesigning Africa’s trade corridors that facilitate this free trade movement, however, needs massive investment. Around 80% of goods and 90% of Africa’s passenger traffic is carried via road, although only 53% of the road network is all weather paved.
Policy plus infrastructure
Trade corridors are increasingly becoming economic corridors. Roads, border posts and logistics networks shape where businesses invest, where industries develop and where jobs are created. Africa’s internal logistics bottlenecks require not simply the construction of roads, but integrated transport ecosystems that support expanding industrialisation, small businesses, and a more efficient movement of goods and people.
Even though Africa is starting to put more emphasis on the beneficiation of its own minerals and other natural resources, ramping up manufacturing and heavy industry, without the means to move these new goods to market, little or no benefit will be derived from these efforts; the efficient movement of products matters as much to the economic success of the continent as manufacturing.
Significant investment is already underway. According to The African Development Bank, their institution alone provided over USD13 billion between 2004 and 2022 to finance regional road corridor projects, building over 18 000 kms of regional highways on 25 road corridors. However, given freight volume projections from the UN Economic Commission for Africa, more than 60 000 km of critical road links require upgrades to carry commercial traffic, requiring further massive public private partnership (PPP) investment.
Although many continental projects are already complete or well on their way to completion, including the Maputo Corridor that links Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga to Mozambique’s largest port, and the Dar es Salaam Corridor that links Tanzania’s port to landlocked countries including Zambia, Burundi and Rwanda, pending further massive infrastructure improvements, road transport will continue to challenge and hamper further growth. Designing vehicles for these demanding operating environments requires deep on-the-ground expertise and an understanding of how African transport operators actually work.
Keeping Africa moving
Building trade corridors requires more than road infrastructure. Every trade corridor also needs effective transport operators, maintenance networks, and logistics partners that keep people and freight moving. This is where commercial vehicle manufacturers have an important role to play in Africa’s growth story.
With assembly operations in each of South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania as well as Uganda and operations in 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Tata Africa has recently marked both assembly line milestones and showcased the diversity of its commercial fleet range from its continental base in South Africa.
Sensitive to prevailing market and economic conditions across the continent, the company’s experience across multiple markets has helped it develop a commercial range that highlights the company’s continued focus on enhancing productivity, improving uptime and delivering lower total cost of ownership across varied use cases.
With a wide range of commercial vehicles models on offer for goods, private and mass passenger transport, Tata is enabling a new generation of youth and female owned entrepreneurs and SMEs, as well as supporting mining and agricultural operations that are the backbone of many African countries’ economies.
The need to facilitate higher volumes of road transportation that are expected to unlock more intra African trade opportunities has informed Tata’s development of a range of vehicles that matches the terrain, climate and commercial needs of the African logistics sector. Recognising the distances that vehicles must travel, a network of more than 320 service centres has been established across the region, ensuring access to genuine spare parts and timely maintenance support, enabling fleet managers to maintain efficiency, productivity and operating uptime of their vehicles.
Tata’s commercial portfolio demonstrates the range of platforms and technologies the company is building across segments, including electric vehicles, tailored to different use cases and operating conditions. It also reflects the strength of the company’s engineering and development capabilities that enable Tata to deliver solutions that are practical, reliable and built to support customer productivity.
Removing barriers
To build on the accessibility of improved road networks and fleets of next generation efficient, relevant commercial vehicles, what is required next is for African governments to innovate transport and logistics policies including removing friction at border crossings through greater regulatory harmonisation beyond the AfCFTA.
The next chapter of Africa’s economic development will not be defined by what the continent produces but how efficiently producers, growers, and business are connected to markets and customers. Trade corridors are the arteries of economic growth and investment today in infrastructure, policy and transport ecosystems will help shape a more integrated and prosperous Africa.
Tata, as a leading private commercial vehicle manufacturer, views being part of building Africa’s transport ecosystem as a critical contribution to the continent’s efforts to forge deeper connections – both ideological and practical – among nations. Africa’s new growth story depends heavily on this connectivity if it is to thrive on its own terms.
Written by Jacques Taylor, Managing Director, Tata Africa