Transport Investment at the Heart of Food Security in Africa
Africa, paradoxically, grows plenty and yet struggles to feed its people. Despite tripling food production over the last three decades, nearly six in ten Africans remain food insecure. The underlying issue isn’t just about growing crops—it’s about getting them to people. The transport and logistics systems underpinning the continent’s food supply are stretched to breaking point, marked by inefficiencies, high costs, and missing links.
The World Bank’s landmark report, Transport Connectivity for Food Security in Africa, shines a bright light on how fractured logistics, poor infrastructure, and limited storage capabilities lead to longer supply chains, spoilage, and price hikes that push essential food items out of reach for millions.
As Axel van Trotsenburg, Senior Managing Director at the World Bank, noted: “Food insecurity in Africa isn’t just about producing more—it’s about fixing the broken systems that prevent it from getting where it’s needed most. By investing and improving transportation, we can remove the key bottlenecks, reduce costs, and ensure more reliable access to food for millions of people.”
Food Wasted, Markets Missed
Startlingly, 37% of locally produced food in Africa never reaches consumers due to poor storage and inadequate transport networks. That’s not just a loss of produce—it’s a squandered opportunity to combat hunger. Rural roads often don’t connect farmers to markets, and in landlocked nations, food can take weeks to arrive. The average African food supply chain is four times longer than its European counterpart.
Long-distance supply chains inflate the final price of staples by up to 45%, particularly for basics like cassava, maize, rice, and wheat. With every added kilometre and checkpoint, affordability takes a hit.
Nicolas Peltier, Global Director for Transport at the World Bank, summed it up: “While food security is a complex issue with many contributing factors, transport investments are one area where countries can take real action.”
Strategic Infrastructure Holds the Key
The report identifies 50 critical infrastructure points that, if modernised, could dramatically reshape food accessibility. Among them:
- 10 major seaports serve 89 million people
- 20 border crossings affect the flow of food to 66 million people across 35 nations
- 20 road segments are lifelines for food flows in nine countries
Focusing investment here offers the most impactful return.
Currently, only 52 of 138 ports in Africa are equipped to handle bulk food efficiently. Many ports prioritise mineral exports, and food often arrives as general cargo, raising costs and causing delays. Likewise, bureaucratic barriers at borders add up to 25% in hidden trade costs.
Meanwhile, regional trade remains underutilised. Africa imports 25% of its food from distant markets, often bypassing local surpluses in neighbouring countries due to poor transport links and policy mismatches.
Priority Actions That Move the Needle
To turn the tide on hunger, the report lays out a set of actionable priorities:
- Invest in Advanced Infrastructure: Upgrade strategic ports and corridors for bulk food movement, especially in landlocked regions.
- Break Down Trade Barriers: Improve customs processes and border facilities to reduce delays and corruption.
- Enhance Rural Access: Extend all-weather road networks to link farmers with markets and boost two-way trade.
- Expand Storage Capacity: Build reliable silos and cold chains to cut down post-harvest losses.
- Boost Competition in Transport: Encourage open markets in trucking and logistics to bring down prices.
- Scale Market Access: Enable food to travel from surplus to deficit zones efficiently with resilient infrastructure.
Each of these actions tackles a specific break in the supply chain. Together, they form a blueprint for sustainable improvement.
Transport Resilience Means Food Resilience
Africa’s transport systems face another hurdle: vulnerability. From flooding to civil unrest, disruptions to a few key links can cripple food movement. That’s why redundancy and resilience must be baked into infrastructure design. Road and port networks should include contingency routes, climate-proofing, and decentralised storage.
Storage remains a particular weak point. On average, Africa stores less than 30% of its annual grain production, compared with far higher capacities in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Without buffer stocks, even modest shocks can cause catastrophic supply gaps.
Connecting the Dots Across Borders
Regional integration could unlock massive benefits. Currently, just 5% of Africa’s cereal trade is intra-continental, held back by tariffs, red tape, and incompatible standards. Improving this could balance surpluses and shortages across borders and reduce reliance on volatile global markets.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has opened the door. But it’s transport corridors, harmonised logistics, and aligned food safety standards that will make it walk the walk.
Building Africa’s Food Future
The stakes are high, but the solutions are clear. Africa has the land, the climate, and the people to be self-sufficient in food. What it needs is a seamless logistics system that gets harvests from field to fork quickly, cheaply, and reliably.
Investing in transport connectivity isn’t just a matter of economic sense—it’s a moral imperative. When roads are built, ports upgraded, and borders streamlined, the payoff is measured in full stomachs, stable societies, and futures that no longer hinge on luck.
