AfDBStatistics Department 1. Introduction and Background Table of Contents The development of infrastructure in countries using data collected by the 1. Introduction and Background 1 Africa is critical for fostering econo- Bank under its AIKP. It also discusses mic growth and improving the living the reasons behind the latest trends. standards of Africans. It contributes 2. The AIDI 2018 Highlights 2 significantly to human development, The present bulletin extends coverage poverty reduction, and the attainment to the period 2000–2018. The annual 3. Main Results 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals AIDI updates present selected indica- (SDGs). Investment in infrastructure tors that comprise the Index’s major accounts for over half of the recent components, namely: (i) electricity; (ii) 4. Conclusions 6 improvements in economic growth in transport; (iii) ICT; and (iv) water and sa- Africa and has the potential to contri- nitation. References 7 bute even more. The AIKP program aims to provide an It is for this reason that infrastructure effective and sustainable platform for Annexes 8 development across Africa remains data collection and analysis on Africa’s central to the African Development infrastructure sectors. The Africa In- Bank’s mission as espoused in its frastructure Development Index (AIDI) High 5s transformative agenda, cove- serves three key objectives, namely: (i) to monitor and evaluate the status and Charles Leyeka Lufumpa ring the period 2015-2025. Director, Statistics Department progress of infrastructure development As part of its infrastructure develop- across the continent; (ii) to assist in re- Kouakou Koua Louis ment efforts, the Bank launched the source allocation within the framework Division Manager, Africa Infrastructure Knowledge Pro- of ADF replenishments; and (iii) to Economic and Social Statistics Division gram (AIKP) to improve the availability contribute to policy dialogue within the Bank and between the Bank, African Yassine Jmal of statistical information on infrastruc- Poverty & Infrastructure Statistics Expert, ture development across Africa. The countries and development partners. Economic and Social Statistics Division Bank also introduced an Africa In- frastructure Index (AIDI) to monitor the It also aims to institutionalize infrastruc- Désiré Lakpa status and progress of infrastruture ture data collection in Africa by mains- Statistician Assistant, Economic and Social Statistics Division development across the continent. treaming infrastructure statistics in the This brief presents the latest AIDI infor- work programs of National Statistical mation on progress made by African Agencies. The program also generates African Development Bank African Development Bank AfDB Development Index 2018 information on investment needs across countries and the first position. Republic of Congo gained 7 positions sectors, which are critical for informing private and public (owing to fast electricity generation and ICT growth), fol- sector investment decisions, including Bank-managed lowed by Ghana and Malawi (3 positions due to impro- support in African countries. vements in ICT and Water Supply and Sanitation), Ango- la, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia (2 positions each due to The AIDI’s methodological basis, the background and improvements in ICT, water supply and sanitation). The rationale for its development, are expounded in Annex observed progress suggests that this group of countries 3. A revision of the original methodology is currently un- is giving priority to investment in infrastructure in these derway as more data are collected under the auspices sectors, which are critical to growing the economy. of AIKP. The main losers in terms of rankings Generally, the bottom ten performing countries made 2. The AIDI 2018 Highlights very marginal gains in their performance—less than one percent point on the average, except Ethiopia and Mada- An overall improvement in AIDI 2018 gascar. It is important to note that most of the countries scores in this category are fragile states or/and emerging from In general, AIDI scores improved for virtually all countries conflict. Some countries recorded a decline in the ove- between 2016 and 2018. The global index imputed for rall performance index. They include Cabo Verde, 1.49; the entire continent has risen from 27.12 to 28.44. The South Sudan, 0.34; and São Tomé and Príncipe, 0.24. range of performance for the top ten countries, inclu- In terms of ranking, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Rwanda ding Seychelles, Egypt, Libya, South Africa, Mauritius, and Uganda saw the biggest drop, falling two positions. Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Cabo Verde and Botswana improved from 35.63-93.92 in 2016 to 36.79-94.32 in Subregional rankings remain stable 2018 ( Table I.1 and Figure 1) . However, the range of The ranking of the five regions remain unchanged, with performance of the bottom ten countries remains almost North Africa remaining in the first position, followed by unchanged. Generally, the progress is more evenly corre- Southern Africa, West Africa, East Africa and Central lated with improvements in the sectoral indices of water Africa. The best performing sub-region to emerge is and sanitation and ICT in the various countries. Howe- Southern Africa, with an average of 2.0 points, followed ver, the improvement in the indices for the electricity and by West Africa—1.55 points. The West African region transport sectors is more pronounced in the top ten per- recorded only 0.36 points—the lowest average in impro- forming countries. vement. The top performers in terms of ICT emerges as the main driver of rankings AIDI improvements Over 2016 and 2018, 47 of 54 African countries impro- The ICT sector has driven the most improvements in the ved on their AIDI, with the top ten performers achieving AIDI ratings over the past decade, compared to all other better growth than the others. Some countries made si- sectors. It is no coincidence that the top ten countries in gnificant gains in their performance over the period 2016 the latest AIDI were those with the highest growth in their to 2018. They include Libya, 3.62 points; Republic of ICT sectors. Congo, 3.06 points; South Africa, 3.01 points; Gabon, 2.92 points; and Côte d’Ivoire, 2.90. The ranking of the top ten remains unchanged, with Seychelles retaining 2 African Development Bank ^ÑêáÅ~å=aÉî ÉäçéãÉåí =_~åâ African Development Bank Development Index 2018 AfDB According to the AfDB report “African Telecom Infrastruc- both sectors across the continent, but the rate of that ture Investment Needs, April 2015”, 2005-2010 was a growth has not been significant enough to affect indivi- period of very high growth for mobile telephony, marked dual country rankings in the AIDI. by the emergence of new operators in the market, mas- sive growth in coverage extensions, higher broadband Water supply and sanitation – disap- speeds, as well as the increase in subscriptions. The pointing progress for many coun- period 2010-2015 also witnessed the development of tries new submarine and regional overland cables, which pro- Many African countries have shown slower progress in vided huge new capacity around coastal Africa, as well water supply and sanitation, compared to developing as facilitating mobile operator consolidation. This period countries in other regions of the world. Surprisingly, some also saw large investments by the private sector and countries that ranked in the top ten according to the AIDI the emergence of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in scores still lack improved sanitation facilities, particularly some countries, which has been a major factor behind in rural areas. In half of the African countries, less than 35 the growth. percent of the population have access to improved sani- tation facilities, and less than 76 percent have access to Over the next few decades, the mobile networks will portable water. need upgrading and modernization to support the shift to smartphones. The need for fiber broadband networks The progress made in sanitation is still well below the and the demand by both corporations, and the general targets set by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals public for superfast fiber access at national levels have (SDGs). This needs to be addressed urgently, given emerged as urgent priorities to keep pace with global the massive impact of this sector on the quality of life developments, and this will require major financial invest- of Africans and its linkages to other sectors such as ment. It is anticipated that in the near to medium term, health—particularly in rural areas. Clearly, policies and ICT will continue to lead the growth and improvement investments targeting this sector are imperative to drive in infrastructure development, as captured by the AIDI up overall AIDI scores and to achieve many of the SDGs. scores. Transport and power recorded 3. Main Results slower growth The transport and power sectors require a much higher 3.1. Country by country comparisons level of investment to fuel their growth. Although these The AIDI 2018 results are presented in the form of scores sectors are crucial components of the AIDI, their contri- and rankings using data collected by the Bank for the pe- bution to the rankings of African countries is much lower riod 2010-2015. In general, scores are improving for all than that of the ICT sector. Progress has been made in African countries, but not enough to boost the rankings of many countries. Figure 1 shows the status of all Afri- can countries ranked according to the 2018 scores. 3 ^ÑêáÅ~å=aÉîAfrican Development ÉäçéãÉåí Bank =_~åâ African Development Bank AfDB Development Index 2018 The AIDI 2018 shows that the top ten ranked countries remained the same as in the AIDI rankings in 2016, na- Figure 1: AIDI 2018, Country mely, Seychelles, Egypt, Libya, South Africa, Mauritius, Scores Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Cabo Verde, and Botswana (cf. Table 1). Their specific ranking remains unchanged. These top ten countries are characterized principally by a robust investment performance in all sectors.