A rainy day showing a flooded street, damaged pavement, and vehicles in an African urban area.
In the context of Africa, many countries are putting money where the asphalt is. The primary motivation behind these investments is the understanding that well-developed roads translate to economic growth, job creation, and well-connected communities. Beyond the physical connectivity, good roads have become emblematic of a nation’s commitment to progress, offering smoother travel for citizens and visitors alike. The IMF developed a novel measure of cross-country road quality based on the mean speed between large cities from Google Maps. This Mean Speed (MS) score serves as an effective proxy for evaluating road quality and accessibility. The MS score highly correlated with the existing World Bank’s Rural Access Index and the WEF’s Quality of Road Infrastructure score.