Africa Focus: Basic infrastructure still a challenge in Africa: survey

The provision of basic infrastructure in Africa still remains a challenge despite the progress registered over the past decade, showed a survey released on Thursday.

The survey, AfroBarometer Survey, is based on field team observations in 35 African countries during the 2014-2015 period in the development of infrastructure for electricity, water, sewerage, roads, and cell phone services.

It was funded by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Dutch Government,

Professor Winnie Mitullah, head of research, said during the launch that despite progress over the past decade, the five services remain an enormous challenge across Africa, especially in rural areas.

"On average, the availability of all five services have increased with sewerage showing the least progress whereas cell phone service is approaching universal coverage," said Mitullah, who was also director of Institute for Development Studies at the University of Nairobi.

The regional comparisons showed North Africa with the best availability of all five services whereas Central Africa tied for first place in piped water and second in the other four services.

West Africa ranked highest in the availability of paved roads, while East Africa ranked last in the availability of electricity, piped water, sewerage and cell phone service.

Burundi ranked last in the availability of electric grid in East Africa, whereas in the availability of piped water, Uganda ranked last in the region.

However, the region scored well in the availability of cell phones, with the least-ranked country, Burundi, scoring 94 percent, and the highest ranked country, Kenya, scoring 98 percent.

The survey noted that rural residents continue to be severely disadvantaged in most countries, with urban-rural gaps of more than 40 percentage points in the average availability of electric grid, sewerage, and piped water.

The survey also found that provision of sewerage and piped water lags that of roads and electricity across the continent.

According to the survey, there is need for affirmative action because even urban residents have inadequate access to clean water and sewerage services.

It indicated that the infrastructure deficit is as a result of a combination of improper policies as well as lack of funding.

Dr Paul Kamau, the survey's deputy project leader, said that African states need to direct more funds towards basic infrastructure as there is a very close relationship between infrastructure services and development.

"We need to replicate what the mobile connectivity has done to most economies in terms of development and creating employment," Kamau said. "We can't address poverty and governance unless we have basic services in place."

He noted that African governments have more resources than they had a few years back, so bridging the infrastructure gap progressively is possible. Enditem