With South Africa’s transnet scheduled to spend a further $6.5 billion over the next three years on increasing the capacity of South Africa’s ports and railways and the development of the blue economy now contributing as much as 4.4% to national GDPs across Africa, Africa’s profile as a global trade partner is gaining momentum.
In order to keep pace with the 4th industrial revolution and prepare for post-neo-panamax shipping requirements to maximise trade, it has become critically important to not only build intelligent mobility into local hardware but also promote greater regional integration to shift trade and transport from overseas partners to regional partners.
Cross-border infrastructure delivery has been identified as pivotal to African development. Transnet, for example, has demonstrated its commitment to pan-African development with plans to expand its port and rail infrastructure in eight African countries including Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.