Africa on the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index

The ability to export products or import inputs efficiently will be key to helping African countries engage more comprehensively with global trade, as they try to boost their economic fortunes. To that end improving customs operations and transport infrastructure would have a huge impact on logistics in sub-Saharan African countries, explains to a new World Bank report. The Connecting to Compete report showed that countries in the subregion are among the lowest performing in World Bank logistics index. It means imports and exports take longer as they often experience delays. South Africa was the only African country to rank among the Top 20 countries on the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, which is dominated by European countries, the United States and China.’ On average it about 5.3 days (including processing time) to get a container through a South African port according to the report. It takes fewer days in Mauritius (4.3 days) but South Africa does better overall on the index because of superior infrastructure, customs processes, and logistics processes.

SEMAFOR