What was said of China, can be said of Africa: Let us not be so dazzled by coast lest forget the interior
 When one speaks of foreign direct investment in Africa, the shipping community tends to forget landlocked states where much of the future wealth of the continent is likely to be found.
Not long ago, Germany's shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd made public a white paper that had been considering ideas along these lines. By focusing on the coastal states, as one so often does, the Hapag-Lloyd paper noted that Africa is a massive continent, and that several countries are completely landlocked.
Today, inland Africa consists of nine countries. Hapag-Lloyd offers 10 main cross-border routes, which together cover the lion's share of the carrier haulage market. One thing to be done is to enlarge freight flow on these corridors. Once done, one can look to expanding into new corridors.
"If ignored, that would leave 38 per cent of the African market untapped if we didn't invest in an inland strategy for Africa. The continent holds 33 per cent of the world's uncultivated arable land. Several main agricultural commodities, such as tea, coffee, cotton and cocoa, come from the inland countries," said the paper.
Thus, it reasoned, targeting imports to Africa under carrier haulage to these specific inland locations is actually about positioning boxes strategically, which opens up new potential for exports. Moreover, these were growing faster year on year than their neighbouring coastal countries with seaports.
Of course, all this was said in the pre-Wuhan flu era, when prospects were brighter and Africans themselves were pulling themselves out of the pit of poverty. Today, a combination of a threatened US Green New Deal, favoured by American Democrats who control of the House of Representatives, as well as the coronavirus panic is stamping on impoverished Africans, driving them back into the pit.
Of course, there are problems standing in the way of success. Infrastructure is still a key issue in the less civilised interior of the continent. Terminal operators and even shipping lines are increasingly investing in Africa's port setup, where, sadly, modernity begins and ends.
Landside infrastructure is sorely neglected, and distances are vast. All offered shipping corridors, for example, exceed a distance of 1,000 kilometres, and the port and its corresponding inland location are often linked by just a single road, that is often reduced to a muddy cart track.
So, if there are blockages or bottlenecks on one road, it immediately and severely affects logistics, and the supply of for virtually all goods destined to that country. And that is quite apart from a range of tariff and non-tariff barriers faces when crossing borders from coastal to landlock nations.
Blocking the way are rules to protect local interests, even local ambitions, as if the presence of a functioning business on one side of a border would prevent a non-existent business on the other side of the border from starting up. Such reasoning is deemed sufficient cause to prevent the passage of some exports.
This in turn triggers retaliatory measures, blocking imports of one to another simply as a punitive measure. Then there is official corruption, where police demand papers and certificates for this and that which may not be legally required, but the accused are induced to pay "fines" on the spot in cash to avoid lengthy adjudication of the dispute.
While considerable work has been done to curb corruption in coastal states and major ports, the problem has been removed to the roads of the interior where police and sundry officials prey on motorists like highwaymen of old.
Another challenge is the fact that all corridors cross at least one border. Although there have been ongoing discussions for years, Africa still doesn't have a continental free-trade zone. This means that most of these countries have different customs regulations. On top of all this, there is also a language barriers. Six of the nine inland countries shipping companies might serve today are predominately French-speaking, next to their numerous local languages.
Parallel to the drive for import cargo, one must work on getting exports out of Africa by rail or road. Hapag-Lloyd is already piloting this in Uganda at this time. With its coffee and cotton exports, they are aiming for so-called "double dip" there, that is, bringing boxes in under carrier haulage and doing the same in getting them back out. This would allow targeting new volumes, have closer follow-up with equipment as well as attract more revenue and higher profits.
Despite the supposedly overwhelming negatives in the news today, mostly fostered by a declining, but mutually reinforcing media, academic, bureaucratic complex, the issues they continue to champion, have been improving over the years - much to their chagrin. The existence of these problems sustains their credibility - as long as problems worsen.
But the UN 2020 extreme poverty reduction goals were met in 2012. The growth of the very thing, capitalist exploitation, the media, academic, bureaucratic complex said was the cause of poverty turned out to be the very thing that effected poverty reduction as it could not be attributed to state intervention.
And one of the best devices to monitor this growth was the growth in third world containerisation. No longer were West Africans chopping off each other's arms in fratricidal conflicts. Instead, and for a long time now, they have been dealing with imports and managing exports flowing in and out of their countries. True, these gains have not eliminated poverty as the media, academic, bureaucratic complex is quick to remind us - though that was not the claim. The claim was it had reduced "extreme poverty" to goals set for 2020 as early as 2012.
What has been done, has been done with little assistance from the media, academic, bureaucratic complex champions, but instead by the very forces it casts as deplorable villains.
But now that the maritime sector has been largely taken care of, it is necessary to tackle obstacles that stand in the way of real growth of the interior, particularly into the landlocked states were so much untapped opportunity lies.
Said the Hapag-Lloyd in fitting conclusion: "If we can do all that, our contributions to and from Africa will rise significantly, which will surely then result in further growth for Hapag-Lloyd on this fantastic continent."
And that goes for those who share Hapag-Lloyd's hopes and dreams. |
