Africa’s bumpy road to regional economic cooperation (8)

DEPENDENCY IS NOT supposed to mean vulnerability. But it sometimes does. In country relations, in particular, it means just that, placing dependent countries at the mercy of those providing some sorts of support. And many African countries are dependent for reasons of their locations, costing them greatly. Landlocked countries of Africa are somehow dependent on their coastal neighbours in so many different ways, summed up in one — access to the sea. This access — or lack of it — determines, to a very large extent, the volume and diversity of sources of revenues accruing to some countries. For the coastal countries, their exclusive economic zones on the high seas provide, as it were, means of maritime logistics, aquatic resources of great economic benefits, mineral resources such as offshore oil and gas deposits and also military strength in the form of naval facilities and personnel. The location of a country also affects the number of countries that it shares borders with. By implication, this affects the extent of diplomatic headaches the countries are exposed to. Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda are landlocked countries in East Africa. By contrast, their coastal neighbours include Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Reunion, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and Tanzania, all having coasts washed by the waters of the western part of the Indian Ocean.

The Dar es Salaam port, in addition to handling its  own international trade, also serves the landlocked countries of Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda,

Infographic designed by IOA.

                     Statistics derived from Africa Country Benchmark Report (ACBR). Infographic designed by IOA.

Zambia and Zimbabwe. Djibouti port serves as a trade gateway for neighbouring landlocked Ethiopia, in addition to its  military bases for China, France, Japan and the US. From the Djibouti port to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa is a 753 km single-track standard gauge railway line, helping the latter in its import and export activities with the outside world. The Port of Mombasa, easily the biggest international seaport in east Africa, also serves Uganda, the DR Congo, Southern Sudan, among others. In general, those landlocked countries are at great disadvantages from many different perspectives. For instance, much of their retarded political growth, poor social and economic performances as well as cases of insecurity owe their existence to built-in geographic disadvantages. International trade by landlocked countries involving transhipment of goods through neighbouring countries that have access to the sea has faced major inhibitions.  A few landlocked countries, such as Ethiopia and Rwanda in Eastern Africa and Botswana in Southern Africa have proved themselves as exceptions, surmounting the difficulties and serving as role models for others.

African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will have a lot to benefit by observing how these three countries overcome their disadvantages. Without a more liberal approach to borders, landlocked African countries will remain economically obscure, backward and burdened. The much sought after regional integration may continue to keep the landlocked countries at the periphery of the mainstream continental economy as there continues to exist those impediments to free flow of goods and people. Access to world markets may continue to elude African landlocked countries in general and those of East Africa in particular as they often lag behind their maritime neighbours in overall development and external trade due to structural challenges, notwithstanding the fact that there are great technological improvements in transport. Although this is understandable, based on their distance from the coast, it remains a challenge that needs to be overcome in a world of inclusiveness and fair play, as well as one in which sustainable development is a major expectation. Dependence on transit neighbours for infrastructure, cross-border political relations, peace and stability and administrative practices result in a variety of challenges for the affected landlocked countries.

Indices of underdevelopment, poverty and economic backwardness abound and are obvious in landlocked countries of Africa. Many of such countries have large landmasses that are not so good for agrarian economy and seem a bit isolated. They are often characterised by very poor levels of infrastructure — especially large stretches of unpaved roads, easily eroded and often susceptible to flooding for much of their transit routes, which are responsible for prolonged and risky journeys. The situation is made worse when such countries depend on poorly equipped ports such as the Douala port of Cameroon serving landlocked Chad and the Central African Republic in Central Africa or Benin’s port at Cotonou, serving as a transit port, unlocking trade to landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger via the Cotonou-Niamey corridor in West Africa. Maintenance of good, dependable and dynamic bilateral and regional agreements, while still retaining national sovereignty, is very important and desirable. But their effectiveness becomes questionable as many landlocked countries are hindered from playing obvious and significant economic roles based on their predicaments. Some of such predicaments, according to research, consist of transit and customs charges in the form of transit goods licences, border fees, temporary road licences, foreign vehicle permits, toll charges, foreign commercial licences, cost of customs verification of containers, posting of security bonds, involvement with police and escort convoys and cancellation of bonds. All these are apart from the cost of bribes usually paid on goods en route, considered to be significant. With this litany of obstacles to free trade, many East African landlocked countries remain uncompetitive in regional and global trade. The situation is mutually reinforcing as the hindrance to trade reduces foreign revenues, balance of payment and the funds expected to be ploughed back for investment promotion that ought to help grow the economy.

Poor economy as a result of narrow livelihood options has provided a leeway for corruption, insecurity, robberies and financial crimes, predominantly in those landlocked countries. They are thus in dire situations. Inexorably, poverty-stricken countrymen become easy recruits into armed criminal gangs, Islamic jihadists and other violent armed groups, all of which terrorise their fellow countrymen as well as those in neighbouring countries. Burundi and the Central African Republic are two volatile examples. Although Somalia is a coastal country, it has become a breeding ground for young terrorists being used to cause havoc and political instability in neighbouring East African countries. Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger are obvious examples in the Sahelian region and are homes to those arms-wielding agents of destabilisation.

East Africa is expected to be far more integrated based on the fact that many countries in that region speak Swahili. But that is yet to have noticeable impacts. The discord over the construction and filling of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has greatly strained the diplomatic relationships between Ethiopia, the neighbouring Sudan and Egypt. Ethiopia’s insistence to have things done its own way has negatively affected many other vital areas of bilateral relationships in that region. The war declared by Prime Minister About Ahmed against the Tigray people in 2020 has run nearly two years before a tenuous truce was agreed to in 2022. The role of Eritrea, apparently in support of the Ethiopian government in fighting against the Tigray people created an upset in Ethiopia and its neighbouring countries while the hostility lasted. This was in the forms of displaced Ethiopians becoming refugees elsewhere, food and humanitarian crisis and the deaths of many civilians.

It remains rather problematic in trying to figure out how these countries are expected to generate wealth individually and collectively under the circumstances of inequality, insecurity, isolation, poor infrastructure, low trade relations, trans-boundary administrative bottlenecks or general uncertainty. Apart from those internally generated within bigger economies, the crises  emanating from weaker economies have also bogged down the stronger, tugging them in opposite directions and weakening their general growth. It is hoped that countries in East Africa — particularly the landlocked — will soon overcome their challenges and will soon become remarkable forces to reckon with in that region and in Africa as a whole. Not much time should be wasted henceforth.