Investment in transport (road, bridges and railway) construction in Africa is set for rapid growth from $47.1bn in 2019 to $69bn in 2020.

This is based on projects being tracked by GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s latest report, ‘African Transport Networks’ reveals that growth in transport construction in Africa is being driven by increasing investment in railway projects.

Spending will be led by Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt where transport investment will respectively increase up to $9.8bn, $8.5bn and $7.5bn in 2020.

GlobalData is currently tracking 448 large-scale transport projects across Africa in both the public and private sectors at all stages from announcement to execution.

When completed in their entirety, the tracked projects will total over 110,000km in length (54,110km for roads, 55,345km for railway and 599km for bridges) of which 75,297km will be newly constructed, 29,197km will be upgraded and 5,561km will have an element of both construction and upgrade, crisscrossing the African continent.

“Africa’s lack of infrastructure is a serious obstacle to growth and development, resulting in a low level of intra-African trade and trade with other regions. The continent accounts for 12% of the world population, but generates a mere 1% of global GDP and only 2% of world trade,” said Yasmine Ghozzi, Economist at GlobalData.

“Over the longer term, Africa has huge potential for growth. There is a clear appetite in the region to improve and expand trade, and a realization that to do so requires industrial integration and infrastructure development.”

Investment rates in transport infrastructure have been increasing, thanks to major continental initiatives such as the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) – a strategic continental initiative for mobilizing resources across African countries to transform Africa through modern infrastructure.