Nigerian Roads Among The Slowest In The World – Chimaobi Agwu
High-speed roads that can carry goods to customers in far-off markets raise productivity, reduce poverty and are an important contributor to sustainable and inclusive economic development. This is why economists spend time trying to assess the state of the world’s roads through surveys and the like.
IMF staff have developed a novel measure of road quality across 162 countries using Google Maps to determine the mean, or average, time it takes to drive between large cities that are at least 80 kilometers (50 miles) apart.
Nigeria, the Giant of Africa is among the ten countries in Africa with the slowest Roads with a mean average speed of 55km/h according to the report. The other countries in the same categorey as Nigeria is guinea 50km/h, Ghana 56km/h, Camerron 56km/h, Gabon 60km/h, South Sudan 59km/h, Kenya 57km/h, Tanzania 57km/h, Somalia 58km/h and Madagascar 51km/k.
As the IMF Chart of the Week shows, the world’s fastest roads are found in richer economies including the United States, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Canada. The slowest roads are found in the poorest countries—another obstacle to inclusive growth. An interactive version of the map can be viewed here.
On the other hand and in contrast to Nigeria, Morocco has a mean road speed of 95km/h, Botswana 91km/h, Namibia 99km/h and South Africa 100km/h. In West Africa, Countries like Cote D’Voire has a mean average speed of 78km/h, Togo 63km/h, Benin 63km/h, Mali 72km/h, Sierra Leone 64km/h, Chad 63km/h, Nigeri 69km/h, Mauritania 77km/h, Burkina Faso 63km/h and Senegal 71km/h.
The research shows that road quality is highly correlated with travel times. While Nigeria is among countries having the poorest roads, the country is busy spending billions to construct high quality roads to other countrues like Niger while roads within its cities are in deplorable condition.
