WHY THE AFRICAN RAILWAY INDUSTRY HAS LAGGED SINCE INDEPENDENCE.

In exploring why Africa’s railway sector has lagged behind the rest of the world, it is important to start with Marta Marson’s research paper on the industry titled ‘The role of China in African railways’ published in 2021.

Marta observes: In absolute terms, World Bank spent almost 5 billion USD financing 80 projects in 29 African countries from 1970 to 2014 (44yrs). A total amount of more than 40 billion USD has been provided by China to finance 31 railway projects among 17 African countries in the period 2000–2014 (14 yrs.). This is more than eight times the amount spent by the World Bank in a time period three times longer for averagely bigger projects in a lower number of countries. This is possibly due to the perception, among International Financial Institutions, that rail transport is a losing game. (The role of China in African railways. Marta Marson, 2021)

The World Bank and IMF, institutions based in the United States, a country possessing a strong highway infrastructure, might have encouraged African nations to focus on roads for transportation, while unknowingly or deliberately overlooking the potential of railways as the cheapest form of transportation next to water.

Some have argued that this biased favoritism towards road infrastructure may have existed among World Bank and IMF advisors as they came to work with the African nations on development of transportation.  Similarly, some African planners might have been influenced by the US model, hence their focus on roads at the expense of rail. However, it is important to consider other related factors which might have influenced these decisions.

It should be remembered that while railway transport has been found to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 75% compared to road transportation and trucking, the concentration on roads has also been greatly encouraged by the western fossil fuel industry which dominates the African energy sector. There is not much available data on Africa’s energy sector specifically of refined hydrocarbons, but as of 2021 the total consumption from petroleum and other liquids in Africa amounted to roughly 4.293 million barrels per day. Egypt and South Africa were the largest consumers respectively. At a rate of USD 70 per barrel, this puts the African energy sector at a value of USD US$ 110 billion Annually and growing. It should therefore not surprise the reader that the international oil companies and their neocolonial masters are bent on discouraging investment in African railway.

It should be noted that majority of the African countries do not refine their own oil but rely on importation, this includes the continent’s major producers of the product like Nigeria.

Africa’s energy sector has for long been dominated by foreign companies like British Royal Dutch Shell, French Total Energies (Formally Total and ELF), British Petroleum (BP) and others who have held the continent’s energy sector hostage since independence. Some new players have been coming up. In some cases, these corporations appear disguised with different names in order to hide their footprint across the continental land mass, one basic example being Royal Dutch Shell which calls itself Vivo Energy within the East African region of Kenya and Uganda where it dominates the OMC (Oil Marketing Companies) sector with its sister Total Energies.

A juxtaposition of the World Bank’s appalling funding of African’s railway industry with the dominance of the African energy sector clearly points to the reason behind the western countries’ reluctance to provide funding for the African railway sector. It was observed that there would be enormous profits to be made from having many vehicles consuming petroleum products on African roads, which in turn led to the World Bank encouraging investment in the road sector. During one of his remarks, the Ugandan president mentioned how foreign oil companies within Uganda’s oil sector discouraged the construction of an oil refinery infrastructure. The president had to make it clear that the refinery had to be built or there would be no extraction of oil at all from the country.

With automobiles being the biggest while trains are the lowest consumer of refined hydrocarbon fuels, it has indeed been proved that; the transportation of 1 ton of goods over a distance of 500 miles, a train utilizes 1 gallon of diesel. Compared with 51 gallons consumed by trucking of the same load along the same distance by road, it is therefore not difficult to see how these oil companies working with the IMF and World bank are encouraging and have contributed to these destructive and inefficient choices to the neglect of rail. For them it is More roads, more automobiles on African roads, and more consumption of refined hydrocarbons for their profit maximization.

©Kwame Gonza is a Technologist, Industrialist, Railway engineering consultant, and Pan-Africanist member of the ACUP-African Continental Unity Party.

Reference:

1. The role of China in African railways. Marta Marson, 2021
2. Total consumption of petroleum and other liquids in selected countries in Africa in 2021 (Statita.com)
3. Africa Refined Petroleum Products Market Size & Share Analysis – Industry Research Report – Growth Trends (mordorintelligence.com)
4. Executive summary – Oil 2024 – Analysis – IEA