BENIN’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

**Table 3. Benin’s road indicators**

|Indicator|Unit|**Low-**<br>**income**<br>**countries**|**Benin**|**Middle-**<br>**income**<br>**countries**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Classified road network density|km/1000 km2 of land area|88|75|278|
|Total road network density<sup>a</sup>|km/1000 km2 of land area|132|142|318|
|GIS rural accessibility index|% of rural pop within 2 km from all-season road|25|28|31|
|Main road network condition<sup>b</sup>|% in good or fair condition|72|69|86|
|Rural road network condition<sup>c</sup>|% in good or fair condition|53|66|65|
|Classified paved road traffic|Average annual daily traffic|1,131|2,041|2,451|
|Classified unpaved road traffic|Average annual daily traffic|57|63|107|
|Primary network overengineering|% of primary network paved with 300 AADT or less|30|10|18|
|Primary network underengineering|% of primary network unpaved with 300 AADT or more|13|34|20|
|Perceived transport quality<sup>d</sup>|% firms identifying transport as major business constraint|28|42|18|

_Source_ : AICD road sector database on 40 Sub-Saharan African countries accessed June 2010.

a. Total network includes the classified and estimates of unclassified and urban networks.

b. Main network for most countries is defined as result of adding the primary and secondary networks.

c. Rural network is generally defined as the tertiary network and does not include the unclassified roads. d. World Bank–IFC Enterprise Surveys on 32 Sub-Saharan Africa countries.

Benin earns high scores for the condition of its rural roads and for rural accessibility. The rural network, 66 percent of which is in fair or good condition, has reached the average for the middle-income countries, enhancing the reliability of the rural network and increasing the potential for rural accessibility. The GIS Rural Access Index for Benin indicates that about 28 percent of the rural population lives within two kilometers from an all-season road, higher than the average of 25 percent for low-income nonfragile countries. With an average daily traffic of 63 vehicles on rural roads, maintaining the entire rural network with an earth road surface is a policy consistent with traffic levels (table 3).

# **Challenges**

Benin’s overall road network is in fragile condition. Sixty-nine percent of its roads are in good or fair condition, a level lower than the 72 percent average for low-income countries (table 3). Furthermore, twothirds of these roads are in only fair condition. If no routine and periodic maintenance is performed, a large share of the main network will fall into poor condition within a very short time. Also, heavy use by overload trucks of the two highways crossing Benin to and from Togo and Nigeria is causing degradation that is jeopardizing their serviceability.

The poor condition of the road network is manifested in the Benin portion of the Cotonou–Niamey (Niger) and Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire)–Lagos (Nigeria) corridors, which capture the highest amount of traffic along the corridors. Sixty percent of Benin’s part is in poor condition on the Cotonou–Niamey route. Sixty-eight percent of Benin’s portion on the Abidjan–Lagos corridor is in poor condition. It is estimated that 27 percent of the trucks that travel the segment of the Abidjan–Lagos corridor between Cotonou and the border with Togo are overloaded, with 60 percent transporting more than 14 tons per axle. This situation leads to a severe deterioration of the corridor, as overloaded trucks cause a 11