The World Bank has identified Nigeria as a key case study demonstrating how investments in rural transport infrastructure can significantly strengthen food security, boost agricultural productivity and improve livelihoods across Africa.

In its latest report, ‘Transport Connectivity for Food Security in Africa: Strengthening Supply Chains’, the World Bank argued that weak transport networks remain one of the most critical bottlenecks undermining food availability and affordability on the continent. The bank points to Nigeria’s Rural Access and Mobility Programme (RAMP) as evidence that targeted large-scale rural road investments can deliver measurable gains for farmers and consumers alike .

According to the report, Nigeria’s experience shows that food insecurity is not only a question of how much food a country produces, but also how efficiently that food moves from surplus-producing areas to deficit regions.

Despite Nigeria’s vast agricultural potential, poor rural connectivity historically limited farmers’ access to markets, inflated transport costs and contributed to post-harvest losses.

To address this challenge, the Federal Government, with support from the World Bank and development partners, implemented RAMP in two phases between 2008 and 2018. The programme, which cost about $303 million, was financed by the Nigerian government alongside the International Development Association and Agence Française de Développement .

The primary objective was to rehabilitate and maintain key rural transport infrastructure in a sustainable manner, with a clear focus on bringing all-season road access to rural communities. The World Bank notes that this objective was directly linked to enhancing agricultural productivity and improving rural livelihoods by connecting farmers to markets, schools and health facilities.

RAMP interventions included upgrading rural roads to all-season standards, establishing community-based maintenance systems and providing annual mechanised maintenance to address more complex road deterioration. These measures, the report says, ensured that road improvements were not only delivered but sustained over time.

The second phase of the programme, RAMP-2, implemented between 2012 and 2018 at a cost of $243 million, delivered particularly strong outcomes for food security. The World Bank estimates that the project brought about 1.5 million Nigerians within two kilometres of an all-season road, sharply improving access to markets and essential services.

Crucially, reduced travel time and lower transport costs translated into a 31 per cent increase in the volume of agricultural produce transported. Farmers were able to move goods more quickly and reliably, limiting spoilage and ensuring fresher food reached consumers. The report links these gains directly to improved food availability and nutrition in rural communities.

Beyond aggregate figures, the World Bank highlights Nigeria’s internal food flows as a practical illustration of why transport matters. Using rice as an example, the report notes that central Nigeria produces more rice than it consumes, while other regions depend on supplies transported from these surplus areas. Efficient domestic connectivity, it argues, is essential to moving food from where it is grown to where it is needed, at a cost households can afford.

Without reliable rural and inter-regional roads, such redistribution becomes expensive and slow, exposing households to higher food prices and local shortages, even when national production appears adequate.

The Nigerian case, the World Bank says, underlines the importance of scaling up rural access rather than relying on isolated or fragmented projects. Large, countrywide investments generate network effects that help correct the spatial mismatch between food production zones and consumption centres. In Nigeria’s case, improved rural roads strengthened links between smallholder farmers and urban markets, supporting both income growth and food supply stability.

The report also emphasises the role of community involvement in sustaining infrastructure gains. By empowering local communities to take ownership of routine maintenance, Nigeria’s RAMP improved the durability of rehabilitated roads and reduced the risk of rapid deterioration, a common problem in rural infrastructure projects across the continent.

For the World Bank, Nigeria’s experience carries broader lessons for Africa, where nearly 60 per cent of the rural population still lives more than two kilometres from an all-season road. High transport costs, long distances and poor logistics continue to undermine food affordability and waste large volumes of agricultural output before it reaches consumers.

The Bank notes that strategic investments in rural roads, integrated with agricultural development programmes and supported by efficient transport services, could significantly reduce food losses, raise productivity and improve living standards. Nigeria’s Rural Access and Mobility Programme, it says, demonstrates that when transport is treated as core economic infrastructure, it can become a powerful tool for tackling food insecurity and building more resilient food systems across Africa.