Imperative of technology to multimodal transport growth

Until the various transport authorities in Nigeria and West African countries begin to leverage emerging technologies, the region may continue to lag behind in integration and efficient transport network.

Multimodal transport consultant, Graham-Olusanmi Lawal, said this in reaction to the perennial challenges of poor connectivity yet costly transportation across West Africa

For a fact, the West African transport corridor remains underdeveloped compared to the Southern Africa and other regional blocs in the world.

Lawal, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Atamic Limited, noted that more than ever before, there is need for a modern and multimodal transport network to efficiently connect hubs of economic activity and areas of potential growth along its alignment.

“The African continent has the highest transport costs in the world, accounting for above 20 per cent of the total imported price of goods within landlocked countries. This inefficient and expensive transportation restricts business activities, global competitiveness and intra-regional trade

“But due to the dearth of summits and conferences that are private-sector led, that bring together ministerial heads, and the various arms and agencies of government in the ECOWAS sub-region in collaborative exchanges with solution and service providers, investors and other stakeholders to shape policy directions that proffer solutions to the myriad of challenges inherent in the regional transportation sector; there is now a real and present opportunity for a new summit to be born as a son of necessity to meet and address the needs, opportunities and challenges that abound within the regional transportation sector.

“The future of transportation in the sub-region is technology, thus a new transportation and technology summit, focusing on ports, rail, road and aviation, with the objective to meet the knowledge and technology gaps in the summit or conference industry in West Africa as a whole is overdue,” Lawal said.

West Africa TransFuture and Technology (WA-tts) is a new summit and first of its kind that explores the future of Transportation and Technology in road, rail, maritime and aviation transportation as catalysts to drive the rapid development and growth of individual states within the ECOWAS union and the region as a whole.

Lawal added that the future of transportation in West Africa must be driven by technology and innovation; from smart ports connected through intelligent integrated rail systems which link high density road networks that connect various airport runways.