ABSTRACT
Despite both the substantial infrastructure gaps and the overall deficit in financing for infrastructure, especially in transport, continental integration remains a critical ingredient that must be reconciled to ensure increased intra-Africa trade through the successful implementation of the AfCFTA. Roads, ports, airways, waterways, and other intermodal connectors serve as crucial links for this trade and play an important role in boosting countries’ economic growth. This chapter assesses the existing and the necessary transport policies required for successful implementation of the AfCFTA and the continent's economic transformation. It asks whether, by reforming existing transport policies, tackling inefficiencies, and addressing the political economy and the transport infrastructure gap, African countries can realize the full potential of the AfCFTA. Specifically, it analyzes three sets of transport/infrastructure-related questions. These analyses guide us through the central question of the optimal integrated transport policy for a successful AfCFTA. It concludes by recommending the need to solve inefficiencies, to leverage on national and regional savings, revive private financing and Private-Public Partnerships in transport infrastructure financing, the importance of prioritizing the construction of trans-African highways, and the benefit of increasing the collaboration with Latin America and Southeast Asia regions.
