RIC

6.10 State of infrastructure in East Africa

This brief outlines the principal infrastructure challenges currently facing the East African sub-region in five sectors – water and sanitation, energy production, electricity, surface transportation, and information and communications technology.

The paper evaluates progress in view of recent studies and the Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Program.

East Africa's infrastructure generally ranks behind that of other African sub-regions, with exceptions in water and sanitation and internet density. In these areas the subregion's performance is comparable to Southern Africa, the regional leader. Road infrastructure also ranks well.

However, major infrastructure problems remain. These are notably energy generation and access to electricity for cooking (both are among the lowest of all African sub-regions), and surface transport logistic costs (the most expensive in the world). The information and communications technology sector is characterised by high costs and low penetration. There remain substantial challenges across all sectors, principal among which is the lack of a regional vision for infrastructure provision.

Issuing body: African Development Bank
Type: Report
Status: Final
Title:
State of infrastructure in East Africa
File type:
PDF
File size: 3.67 MB
Year of publication: 2013
Number of pages: 31