To analyse the investment in road infrastructure in various regions, the total kilometres of both paved and unpaved roads were aggregated. 67% of the road infrastructure in the Maghreb region is paved. Within the region, the top performers are Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco with over 70% of total kilometres of road being paved.

Egypt has also invested in its road network having paved 92% of its total road network. The other major economic powerhouses on the continent: Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya have only paved 15%, 17% and 7% of their total respective road network. Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey (MIT) serve as a benchmark to evaluate the performance of African economies.

Excluding the North African countries, the rest of the continent has a long way to go to catch up with the MIT nations in terms of total paved roads. However, the road density in MIT is much higher than all the African regions, which serves as another reminder of the much-needed investment in Africa’s road network.

 Next: Africa’s energy infrastructure.