Economics argue that transportation can promote economic development. In this age, transportation is beyond the construction of roads, rails and ports, it is more about fostering innovation, improving the quality of life and boosting the supply and movement of labour, goods and services. 

The objective should be to ensure that transportation is cost-effective, efficient and flexible to ensure seamless movement of commodities and products along a value chain.

The World Bank describes transportation as a crucial driver of economic growth, poverty reduction, and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It insists that investments in transportation can facilitate more efficient trade and enhance human development by greater mobility—all with due attention to climate change. 

Transportation is not just a national challenge within states, it is also a regional and continent-wide concern. To unlock Africa’s potential, regional integration through infrastructure deployment will be indispensable. 

The disruptions created by the COVID-19 pandemic has equally helped to raise the significance of logistics and technology-driven transportation. It is emerging as the fulcrum for the electronic commerce revolution across the continent. It is also one of the new driving forces boosting job creation as the world seeks to reinvent itself post-COVID-19.

According to the African Union, the landmark African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, which became fully operational in 2020, has the potential to create a continental free-trade zone with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.4 trillion. It also holds massive potential for the transformation of the continent’s transportation. 

As the Nigerian Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi argued in a recent forum, “transportation and AfCFTA are like Siamese twins as they are intricately linked. Transportation provides the vehicle through which the major objective of AfCFTA thrives; that is, creating a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of businesses, persons and investments, promoting regional and continental integration, market access and resources reallocation across sectors and countries.”

Experts contend that AfCFTA and the creation of a single market of goods and services represents an expedient opportunity for the issues of logistics and transportation in Africa to become more streamlined. The thinking is that countries will come together to share and agree on uniform solutions to issues around entry barriers, customs issues and infrastructure challenges. 

WOFA’s focus will be to ensure that Africa’s transportation infrastructure is transformed to boost trade and lift millions of Africans out of the shackles of poverty.