By Collins Mwai

PREVAILING infrastructure and energy gaps across the continent can be bridged fast if African countries pursued joint projects, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr Elham Ibrahim, has said.

Ibrahim made the remarks while speaking to The New Times on the sidelines of the ongoing 27th African Union summit in Kigali.

She noted that with most of the African countries being emerging economies, teaming up for major projects would ease the burden on individual countries as well as improve their chances of securing funding.

"This is what can enable us undertake huge projects, as well as alternative projects. It is important to work together since resources in some countries are not adequate enough for large projects. That is why we are devising a strategy of joint infrastructure projects,” Ibrahim said.

The continent continues to suffer from inadequate infrastructure such as road network, railway access and pipeline which experts say has slowed integration and limited intra-Africa trade.

Ibrahim said regions that had jointly implemented infrastructure projects such as east Africa had experienced rapid growth in recent years and could easily mobilise funding. 

"If you look at countries in the East African region, they have improved very fast in recent years in terms of infrastructure due to cooperation. This is true in the areas of roads network, railway and pipeline. Cooperation speeds things up and makes it possible to get funding,” she said.

By teaming up, the commissioner added, financing, a factor considered "elusive” by most governments implementing infrastructure projects, would be easy to access from multiple sources, including the private sector.

"It is possible to attract investments with the right regulation and policies in these areas beginning with the local private sector,” Ibrahim said.

She urged African countries to tap into alternative energy sources beyond hydro-electric means to speed up power generation. Among the ways she said were yet to be fully harnessed include solar, wind and geothermal energy.  

Ibrahim lauded regional efforts under the Northern Corridor Integration Projects, which gave rise to the Smart Africa initiative currently with about 11 African countries. Noting that such initiatives had made it possible to implement the One Area Network, she said the rest of the continent ought to learn from the model.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw