The Republic of Congo's Infrastructure : A Continental Perspective
Upgrading infrastructure plays a critical role in the Republic of Congo's quest to diversify its economy and reduce poverty. It is also an important source of growth on its own. A cross-country statistical analysis conducted for this report sh...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/305641468007861294/The-Republic-of-Congos-infrastructure-a-continental-perspective http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27259 |
| Summary: | Upgrading infrastructure plays a
critical role in the Republic of Congo's quest to
diversify its economy and reduce poverty. It is also an
important source of growth on its own. A cross-country
statistical analysis conducted for this report shows that
infrastructure contributed one-half of one percentage point
to the Republic of Congo's per capita gross domestic
product (GDP) growth annually from 2001 to 2006. However, if
the country's infrastructure could be improved to the
level seen in Mauritius, the leading country in Sub-Saharan
Africa, it could contribute more than 3 percentage points to
annual per capita growth. The Republic of Congo's power
infrastructure is inadequate and inefficiently operated. The
country lags well behind peer countries in generation
capacity and electrification. The parts of the population
not served by the grid face exorbitant costs. The government
has responded to these issues with an ambitious investment
plan. However, if new assets are to operate effectively,
major inefficiencies in the power utility will also need to
be addressed. The utility's transmission and
distribution losses are 47 percent, more than double
best-practice benchmarks, while the cost of overstaffing is
30 percent of utility revenue. Tariffs recover barely half
the cost of service provision, even though full cost
recovery will be affordable to the population. In the
information and communication technology (ICT) sector, the
Republic of Congo has made good progress in developing its
mobile telephony market in recent years, with high levels of
signal coverage. The cost of international connectivity is
currently high, but it should fall once the country connects
to the international submarine cable and completes its
domestic fiber optic network. On the other hand, the
physically dilapidated and financially depleted condition of
the fixed-line telephone operator is becoming a constraint
to raising Internet penetration. The Republic of Congo
performs relatively well on service coverage in the water
and sanitation sector. The country's access statistics
are substantially ahead of those in its peer group,
particularly with regard to piped water, stand-posts, and
improved latrines. However, access to services is much
greater in urban areas than in rural areas. Furthermore,
under-pricing of water has hurt the financial soundness of
the water utility, even though analysis suggests that cost
recovery tariffs would be affordable to consumers. |
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