Commercializing Africa's roads: transforming the role of the public sector

During the past 20 years, nearly a quarter of the capital invested in Sub‐Saharan Africa's roads has been eroded through insufficient maintenance. To restore economically justified roads and prevent further deterioration now requires annual expenditures of about $1.5 billion. The main problems affecting road maintenance are institutional and financial, although there are also a number of technical, organizational, and human resource problems which contribute to poor road maintenance policies. The experience gained under Africa's Road Maintenance Initiative (RMI), suggests that the policy reforms required to overcome these problems need to focus on reforms in four main areas: (a) creating ownership and commitment; (b) identifying a stable source of finance; (c) clarifying who is responsible for what; and (d) commercializing management of roads. The first reform focuses on ways of involving stake‐holders in decisions about management of roads. Sierra Leone and Tanzania have done so by appointing them to Roads Boards. The second reform aims to establish an adequate and stable flow of funds. Several African countries are attempting to achieve this by introducing an explicit road tariff (licence fees, plus a fuel levy) and depositing the proceeds into a special account, or Road Fund, to avoid mingling them with the governments’ general tax revenues. The third reform focuses on establishing a consistent organizational structure to manage main, urban, district, and community roads. The final reform attempts to establish a more commercially‐oriented roads organization. This usually involves introduction of better systems and procedures and taking a more objective approach to setting priorities. It also leads to pressures for greater autonomy to encourage market discipline and strengthen managerial accountability.