Publication: Nigeria's Infrastructure: A Continental Perspective
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Published
2011-02
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Date
2017-06-16
Author(s)
Pushak, Nataliya
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Abstract
Infrastructure has made a net contribution of around one percentage point to Nigeria's improved per capita growth performance in recent years, in spite of the fact that unreliable power supply held growth back. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could boost annual growth by around four percentage points. Nigeria has made important strides toward improving much of its infrastructure. Compared to many African peers, Nigeria has relatively advanced power, road, rail, and information and communications technology (ICT) networks that cover extensive areas of the nation's territory. In recent years, Nigeria has conducted several important infrastructure sector reforms. The ports sector has been converted to a landlord model, and terminal concessions now attract private investment on a scale unprecedented for Africa. The power sector is undergoing a restructuring, paving the way for performance improvements; the sector is finally on a path toward raising tariffs to recover a larger share of costs. Bold liberalization measures in the ICT sector have resulted in widespread, low-cost mobile services, Africa's most vibrant fixed-line sector, and major private investments in the development of a national fiber-optic backbone. A burgeoning domestic air transport sector has emerged, with strong private carriers that have rapidly attained regional significance.
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“Pushak, Nataliya; Foster, Vivien. 2011. Nigeria's Infrastructure: A Continental Perspective. Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27257 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Nigeria's Infrastructure : A Continental Perspective(2011-06-01)Infrastructure made a net contribution of around one percentage point to Nigeria's improved per capita growth performance in recent years, in spite of the fact that unreliable power supplies held growth back. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries could boost annual growth by around 4 percentage points. Among its African peers, Nigeria has relatively advanced power, road, rail, and ICT networks that cover the national territory quite extensively. Extensive reforms are ongoing in the power, ports, ICT, and domestic air transport sectors. But challenges persist. The power sector's operational efficiency and cost recovery has been among the worst in Africa, supplying about half of what is required, with subsequent social costs of about 3.7 percent of GDP. The water and sanitation sector has inefficient operations, with low and declining levels of piped water coverage. Irrigation development is also low relative to the country's substantial potential. In the transport sector, Nigeria's road networks are in poor condition from lack of maintenance, and the country has a poor record on air transport safety. Addressing Nigeria's infrastructure challenges will require sustained expenditure of almost $14.2 billion per year over the next decade, or about 12 percent of GDP. Nigeria already spends about $5.9 billion. It is well placed to raise the funds needed for infrastructure, given the strength of the national economy, abundant oil revenues, and efforts at electricity cost recovery and other improvements to operations and management.Publication Senegal's Infrastructure : A Continental Perspective(2011-09-01)Infrastructure contributed 1 percentage point to Senegal's improved per capita growth performance between 2000 and 2005, placing it in the middle of the distribution among West African countries. Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries (MICs) could boost annual growth by about 2.7 percentage points. Senegal has made significant progress in some areas of its infrastructure, including the transport, electricity, water, and information-and-communication-technology (ICT) sectors. 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Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries (MICs) could boost annual growth by about 2.7 percentage points. Senegal has made significant progress in some areas of its infrastructure. In the transport sector, road standards are adequate and their quality average. Senegal has also strengthened the road institutional framework with the creation of the Second Generation Road Fund (FERA) and the Road Maintenance Executing Agency. It has also managed to have a toll road concession granted for the Dakar-Diamniadio Toll Highway. The tariffs in the railway sector are internationally competitive, and there has been improvement in the financial viability of ports. After Nigeria, the country stands as an emerging hub and a major player in air transport. Also, Senegal has managed to introduce private participation in electricity generation, and the unbundling of the electricity sector is under way even as the country actively participates in the regional power market. The country is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in improved water. In the information and communication technology (ICT) sector there has been an impressive expansion of the mobile and Internet markets. Senegal already spends around $911 million per year on infrastructure, equivalent to about 11 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Almost $312 million a year is lost to inefficiencies of various kinds, associated mainly with under-pricing in the power and water sectors, poor financial management of utilities, and inefficient allocation of resources across sectors. 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Raising the country's infrastructure endowment to that of the region's middle-income countries (MICs) could boost annual growth by more than 3 percentage points per capita.Today, Burkina Faso's infrastructure indicators look relatively good when compared with other low-income countries (LICs) in Africa. Burkina Faso has made significant progress in developing its infrastructure in recent years. The rapid modernization of the ICT sector, around 60 percent of the population lives within range of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) cell-phone signal. The expansion of safe water and sanitation technologies in urban areas since the late 1990s and the establishment of a system for funding road maintenance (by reducing the cost of road travel) should pay long-term dividends to the economy. The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has gathered and analyzed extensive data on infrastructure across almost all African countries, including Burkina Faso. The results have been presented in reports covering different areas of infrastructure including ICT, irrigation, power, transport and water and sanitation and various policy areas, including investment needs, fiscal costs, and sector performance.
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