Road infrastructure in
the DRC- Interesting data from the World Bank
I came across a World
Bank (WB) report on the DRC named « Exogenous
Shock, Macroeconomic Stability and Development: Economic Policy Options »
published in December 2016.
I have discovered very
interesting facts on the country road infrastructure. The WB reports that the
level of coverage of the road network places the DRC well below the African
average, with its Road Network of General Interest (RRIG) representing a spatial
density of roads of 25 km/1000 km2 against an African average of 204 km/1000
Km2. Coverage in relation to the population is 0.9 km/ 1000 inhabitants
compared to an African average of 3.4 km/1000 inhabitants. It is worth noting
that only 26% of this RRIG can be used today!!!
The lack of quality and quantity
of road infrastructure obstructs the development of economic activities and
hinders the development of the private sector. Indeed, road infrastructure
provides physical access to resources and markets and facilitates trade between
the country provinces. In 2013, 24.8% of firms reported transportation problems
as a major constraint to their operations according to the report. This is due
to the fact that the majority of the territory remains inaccessible by roads,
which makes the displacements of people and goods very expensive.
The WB continues by
saying that poor infrastructure in the DRC leads to productivity losses of up
to 40% and that by making the right investments, business costs could be
reduced by 80% and the costs of transporting agricultural products could be
reduced by 70%!!!
The maintenance is
another issue. Indeed, the maintenance deficit accelerates the deterioration of
existing roads and prevents the benefits of network expansion in circulation.
The reports says that in 2012 for example, the Office des Routes (government
agency in charge of road maintenance) was supposed to maintain 13,000 km of
roads but only maintained 7,600 km, representing 58% of the total.
Although the report
recognizes an important increase in road infrastructure expenditures and an
improvement in the sector governance it is also saying that the government has
invested an average of 1.8% of GDP over 2008-2012 in its urban and inter-urban
networks, which is 1.2 percentage points lower than necessary to ensure
adequate maintenance and progressive development of the road network.
Last but not least, the
DRC is almost always the most expensive country in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
when it comes to cost of materials and work on road infrastructure as shown in
the table below.
Table 1: DRC ranking on cost of
materials and work on road infrastructure compared to SSA countries
|
|
Asphalt
|
Crushed Stones
|
Gravel
|
Simple work on dirt road
|
Surface treatment
|
Double surface treatment
|
|
DRC ranking
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
5
|
2
|
1
|
|
Number of countries
|
11
|
8
|
10
|
12
|
6
|
7
|
|
Variance to the mean
|
+44,1%
|
+44,4%
|
+109,6%
|
+7,3%
|
+22,1%
|
+33,2%
|
Obviously, the full
report provides more details on the country road infrastructure but the few statistics
presented above were an eye opening for me on this crucial area of our economy.
Not only we are far behind our SSA peers in terms of road network development
but we are also one of the most expensive countries when it comes to
acquisition of materials and to the work on roads itself. Needless to say that
with our limited State Budget (not yet voted for 2017 by the way) this is not
good news…
