{"id":466,"date":"2014-07-02T12:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-02T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=466"},"modified":"2016-10-28T14:41:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T13:41:45","slug":"intra-african-trade-and-transportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2014\/07\/02\/intra-african-trade-and-transportation\/","title":{"rendered":"Intra-African trade and transportation"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I wrote about intra-Africa business travel<\/a> a few weeks ago, Charles Ivenco \u2013 one of my friends from Lagos Business School<\/a> \u2013 left a comment in which he told us about the improvements in air transportation<\/strong> over the last decade, and how this is related to the increased levels of intra-African trade.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to data from the African Union Commission<\/a>, transport costs are 63% higher in African countries than the average in developed countries.<\/strong> The data are from 2012 but it doesn’t look like there’s been a dramatic change over the last two years.<\/p>\n

\"Trucks<\/a>
Trucks waiting to be loaded at the Accra, Ghana port area<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And averages are averages. While there’s a clear need to improve transport infrastructure across the continent, there are some pockets of well-integrated transportation systems<\/strong> (as a reminder, this blog <\/a>focuses on Sub-Saharan and Southern Africa):<\/p>\n