Stakeholders in the road sector in Africa are currently examining better strategies that the continent can adopt to better develop infrastructure and tap the benefits that good roads offer. They began meeting in Yaounde yesterday April 16 within the framework of the 15th Forum of the Association of African Road Managers and Practitioners (AGEPAR) on the theme, "Construction of Trans-African Roads: Strategies and Prospects."

Speaking during the opening ceremony, Cameroon's Minister of Public Works, Patrice Amba Salla, said irrespective of concerted efforts to integrate the continent through good roads, desired results are yet to be attained. With the absence of trans-African rail infrastructure and the improper functioning of air transport, roads remain the surest way of integrating and developing the continent. Other speakers like the President of AGEPAR, Oumat Dit Ahamet Abdoulaye, said in Africa, road transport ranks first as it ensures the transportation of persons and goods especially in the rural communities where it remains the main form of access to economic activity centres and basic social structures.

They regretted the fact that African road network is the lowest in the world - seven km per 100 square km as against 12 km in Latin America and 18 km in Asia. The setting up of AGEPAR, the President of the African Road Maintenance Fund Association, Benin's Kotchofa Sylvestre, said was to respond to these challenges as well as to open up 15 landlocked countries without access to seaports in the continent.

Participants at the ongoing Yaounde confab were unanimous that with the setting up of the association, there is already light at the end of the tunnel. This is justified by ongoing as well as yet-to-begin trans-African road infrastructural projects like the Mombassa-Lagos Trans-African road comprising the 700-km Kisangani-Bangassou road, 441-km Bossembele-Garoua Boulai road, the 98-km Meidougou-Garoua Boulai road, the 326-km Foumban Tibati as well as the 225-km Bamenda-Ekok/Mfum roads. Others include the Dakar-N'djamena road, Lagos-Nouakchott road, et al.

The Yaounde confab to span through April 19 is serving as an opportunity for the continent's road managers and practitioners to jointly seek ways of federating efforts, harmonising strategies, developing research and respecting international standards for durable road infrastructure capable of catapulting the economies to sustainable boom.