The road ahead for fixing Africa’s infrastructure deficit
Africa is characterized by an infrastructural deficit, a situation that remains critical. In fact, across the continent, 319 million people are living without access to improved reliable drinking water sources, 695 million people are living without basic sanitation access, only 34 percent have road access, and 620 million people don’t have access to electricity (sub-Saharan Africa). These insufficient infrastructure networks across the continent have limited cross-border flows of trade, capital, information, and people, drastically affecting Africa’s growth and broader development performance and regional integration. The Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), a continental initiative aimed at tackling the infrastructure deficits in Africa by 2040, should address these major gaps, but the effort is a long way from meeting its potential.