CÔTE D’IVOIRE’S INFRASTRUCTURE: A CONTINENTAL PERSPECTIVE

# <mark>Roads</mark>

## **<mark>Achievements</mark>**

<mark>At first sight, Côte d’Ivoire’s road density looks relatively low by African standards (table 2). However, an analysis of the road network suggests that the primary and secondary networks provide sufficient connectivity to link the capital cities, secondary towns, and international borders.</mark> <mark>Like many other African countries, Côte d’Ivoire has made significant progress with second generation road sector reforms. It has established both a Road Fund and a Road Agency. Yet the Road Fund does not conform to best practice design criteria. In particular, the fund has no clear legal basis, nor is there provision for direct transfer of Road Fund resources to the Road Agency. In contrast to many other African countries that spread Road Fund resources across the main, rural, and urban networks, Côte d’Ivoire allocates 90 percent of Road Fund resources to the main road network and the balance to urban roads. The rural network does not benefit from the Road Fund.</mark>

**Table 2 Côte d’Ivoire’s road indicators benchmarked against Africa’s low- and middle-income countries, mid 2000s**

||Unit|Low-income countries|**Côte d’Ivoire**|Middle-income<br>countries|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Total road network density|km/1000 km<sup>2</sup>of arable land|133|**82**|318.4|
|Classified road density|km/1000 km<sup>2</sup>|88.2|**80**|278.4|
|GIS Rural accessibility|% of rural population within 2 km from all-<br>season road|23.1|**32.2**|31.5|
|Paved road traffic|average annual daily traffic|1,287.7|**843**|2,558.3|
|Unpaved road traffic|average annual daily traffic|38.5|**47**|74.7|
|Paved network condition|% in good or fair condition|86.2|**79.9**|82.0|
|Unpaved classified network<br>condition|% in good or fair condition|55.8|**73.0**|57.6|
|Perceived transport quality|% of firms identifying transport quality as<br>major business constraint|27.6|**38.2**|18.2|
|Overengineered|% of main road network over-engineered|29.6|**24.0**|18.4|
|Underengineered|% of main road network under-engineered|13.5|**2.6**|20.0|

Source: Gwillliam and others 2009, derived from AICD national database downloadable from http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/aicd/tools/data.

## **Challenges**

<mark>The Road Fund is supported by a fuel levy, which as of 2006 was set at $0.05 per liter. This is far below the estimated $0.15 per liter needed to fully maintain and rehabilitate the country’s classified road network.As a result, as in other neighboring West African states, road sector spending in Côte d’Ivoire falls far short of what is needed to catch-up with the neglect of the recent past and to maintain the network once it is restored to good condition (figure 4). According to simulations, Côte d’Ivoire needs to spend about $48 million per year to fund proper maintenance activities. When rehabilitation and other capital spending needs are added, the total estimated requirement for the network at present stands at around $85 million a year.During the crisis period, road sector spending all but collapsed (table 3). Since 2005, Côte d’Ivoire has managed to gradually step-up its resource mobilization for the sector, even if the capacity to spend those resources has lagged somewhat behind. In the year 2009, realized spending reached almost</mark> 9