Using integrated multi-modal logistics to let Africa roar

From the 2nd century BCE to the mid-15th century, linking China with the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and East Africa, transport and trade fans of the time had The Silk Road.

Six hundred years later, we’re still keen on roads—especially in East Africa. Maybe a bit too much. In Africa, for example, road is overwhelmingly the dominant form of transport for freight.

The problem with it being so is all that diesel and petrol pollution, and (on the whole) relatively high costs (on average, 40% to 100% higher than in Southeast Asia, for instance). But what if there was a way to link existing, navigable waterways and what rail we can hook on to provide better transit routes across the continent to the coast (and so, on to the world’s markets)?

From TEN-T to the world's second-largest freshwater lake

Europe has pioneered that kind of integrated approach with the EU’s “coherent, multi-modal” TEN-T high-quality transport infrastructure projects, which we have covered here and here, and which seeks to roll out an EU-wide comprehensive network by no later than 2050.

Looks like Africa sees the sense in that kind of ambition, and has announced its own kind of a TEN-T in the form of a new navigation line between Lake Victoria and the Med, the (as it stands) $22 billion VICMED. project.

The idea: have one route from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean through the White Nile, Khartoum, and the central Nile, onward to Cairo, Port Said, and Alexandria, and possibly one day the port of Benghazi in eastern Libya.

Doing so would at a stroke create a continuous transportation corridor linking the Indian Ocean, the Horn of Africa, the Nile Basin, and the Mediterranean; there’s no reason, say commentators, that it couldn’t also connect to additional branches and ports across eastern and western Africa.

It would also be an amazing way to connect all kinds of legacy and renewed rail in the heartland, like the line linking Mombasa to Kampala, Dar es Salaam to western Tanzania and Zambia—and along the way, slash freight transportation costs by 30–40%.

How it would do that is to offer participating economies a 3,800-kilometre route, allowing vessels of up to 1,500 tons along most sections across 25 major river ports, about 15 navigation locks, and extensive river engineering works. By 2045, projected annual capacity could be 10 million tonnes of cargo, and around 2 million passengers per year.

Sustainable, connected, efficient--and innovative

The immediate wider aim, though, besides deepening regional integration, is to provide a shorter and direct transport route between Western Europe and Eastern and Central Africa which is relatively cheaper and way more environmentally friendly than all that hard-driven road.

Why do we say ‘hard-driven’? Being a lorry driver in Africa is a tough gig—just physically, as most rural and cross-border routes are unpaved, which can lead to severe damage to vehicles (especially during rainy seasons, of which there are a lot) and high accident rates, but also on a personal level, with issues around having to pay ‘unofficial fees’ (bribes), hijackings and armed attacks.

How could something like VICMED or other initiatives (check out the African Union’s ambitious PIDA, the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa, or the Trans-African Highway Network, for example. There’s also the EU's "Global Gateway" idea, which is all about trying to actively support the development of African transport corridors to mirror the TEN-T approach, aiming for equivalent sustainable and efficient connectivity.

What’s particularly exciting about VICMED, though, is the way its progress will not just immeasurably help development and trade but also be the perfect backbone for levels of integrated communications coverage that might leave even the high mark represented by ideas like the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) behind.

As hardened communications geeks as we are here, that sounds amazing; as passionate proponents of logistics modernisation and uplift of existing built infrastructure, even if it gets halfway to these goals, it would be great news.

If it ever happens, sure; a lot could still go wrong. But this is the kind of ambitious, coordinated multi-lateral planning essential for regional development and the perfect springboard for all kinds of engineering and technical innovation.

And who wouldn’t want to take that road?