TransportingAfrica: 2017

Tuesday 24 January 2017

SA, Chad sign Bilateral Agreement on aviation

South Africa and Chad have signed a Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) which is expected to bring opportunities that will grow the aviation industry in both countries. Transport Minister Dipuo Peters and Minister of Civil Aviation and National Meteorology of Chad Haoua Acyl Ahmat Aghabach signed the agreement in Pretoria on Friday.

Dean Calma/IAEA via Wikimedia Commons - Minister Dipuo Peters

"I visualise too, the important contributions we shall all make in the conversion of opportunities into realities that shall allow us to transform the landscape and the sky space that defines our realm of work," Minister Peters said.

According to the Minister, the agreement between South Africa and Chad provides a highly restricted framework that includes one passenger and one all-cargo frequency per side as well as a single designation regime per country and with no framework for the designated airlines of both countries to enter into a code-sharing arrangement.

"It is expected that Africa's rapid population growth will continue and that its younger population will be the working class who will fly more often.

"The above-mentioned growth prospects indicate a wide range of opportunities available to ensure the realisation of aviation industry growth," she said.

Minister Peters said it was South Africa's position that Africa needs to consolidate its own air transport market and industry in order to remain relevant. "Therefore, the individual African members' states need to support the regional economic communities' initiatives.

"To the extent that development and growth must result from our persistent endeavors in the aviation sector, the South African government has also addressed impacts of policy and operational fragmentation as well as inconsistent regulation in the sector," she said.

South Africa's commitments and undertaking are stated in various key documents including the White Paper on National Civil Aviation Policy which states that the industry is vital to international trade, investment, and tourism, as well as contributing to domestic transport, sports and recreation. "Therefore an efficient, reliable and sustainable South African aviation industry should be promoted while maintaining control over international and domestic air transport services within a well-defined regulatory framework," Minister Peters said.

Monday 23 January 2017

Youth Activist Promises To Assist River Transport Union in Monrovia

Monrovia - A youth activist and founder of the Youth Network for Reform, (YONER)-Liberia, Jarius Andrew Greaves, recently crossed the Mesurado River to meet with the River Union head on ways to help mitigate the situation regarding life jackets.

Report by Mae Azango - maeazango@frontpageafricaonline.com

Mr. Greaves said he read an FPA’s publication about the danger of posed to students and other passengers crossing the river without kife jackets.

Unlike Mr. Greaves’ effort, neither the Ministry of Transport who is responsible for road and rail, air and marine transport, has visited the site along the riverside to see the first hand danger and risk involved, nor has the ministry send a team to verify the information; though there was an acknowledgment from the Ministry that river transportation is new and out of their reach.

Greaves, who recently contacted FPA to accompany him across the Mesurado River, upon his arrival to Liberia, said he read the story on the website of FrontPageAfrica and was asked by his partners to meet with the Canoe Transport Union and work with them in securing life jackets in the near future.

“I am a youth activist and my concern includes, bettering the lives of youth worldwide, and since the Union is dealing with many students who happens to be youth, my partners asked me to meet and talk with you about challenges faced by the Union,” he said.

During the meeting held on the West Point side of the River, Eric D. Kwahin, General Manager, West Point Standard Sea and River Transport, welcomed his guests and outlined the major challenge of insufficient life jackets amongst others.

“Our major challenge is insufficient life jackets for the students; we have been able to get 14 pieces of jackets only enough for two canoes that we are presently using since the closure of schools for the break. We have five canoes and each canoe takes seven persons,” said Eric Kwahin.

Kwahin said when schools are in session, students make up half of the passengers that are ferried across the river. He pointed out that during that period, the river traffic is busy, because they make between 100-120 trips, to cross West Point and back.

When asked by Mr. Greaves as to how many life jackets the union will need to reduce the risk for passengers, Kwahin answered:

“We need about 50-75 pieces of life jackets, because they will at least last for the period of 3-6 months.

These 14 pieces of jackets won’t last because we wash them after every three days, and washing wears out the jackets quickly. So if we had about 50 or 75 jackets, we will wash them after every two weeks, and then the jackets will last longer.”

Listing the lack of security for passengers as another challenge, Kwahin said market women are exposed to robbery.

“Since the market women have seen the canoe transport to be one of the safest ways to secure their money after selling their goods, criminals have now erected a ghetto right in the area because they have noticed the market women no longer take the both bridges where they are normally robbed by criminals when they are crossing.

"Therefore the problem of security is serious.”

Mr. Greaves and Kwahin exchanged contacts and Greaves promised to get back to the Canoe Transport Union as soon as possible regarding life jackets.

Investments in Africa's transport infrastructure begin to pay off

African countries were on a drive to boost infrastructure and road networks on the continent in 2016.

Ethiopia made huge strides this year with the inauguration of a new railway line, linking the capital, Addis Ababa with Djibouti in October.

The 750 kilometer line was built at a cost of 4 billion US dollars with help from China.

The country wants to have 5,000 kilometers of new rail lines by 2020 to boost the economy by improving transport.

“It is a part of trans African railway network so it will give an opportunity for connecting Ethiopia with another neighbouring countries and it will minimize the cost of the transport and transport time,” said Ethiopian Railways Corporation, communication manager, Dereje Tefera.

Nigeria was also investing in infrastructure and launched a commuter train service linking the administrative capital, Abuja to major hub, Kaduna.

Nigeria once had a thriving rail system but it collapsed in the 80’s due to mismanagement.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is now working on rail and power projects urgently needed to diversify an economy hit hard by a plunge in global oil prices.

“We are having a really nice ride, it’s so comfortable there is really no shock you know it’s really smooth. We are enjoying ourselves and the AC is good, we even have movie. It’s really nice,” said Bimpe Omotosho, a passenger on the train.

While in South Africa, minibus taxis, which are a common mode of transport in Africa were an under-tapped revenue source for South Africa’s struggling economy.

The taxis are crucial for nearly 19 million South Africans who use them to get around every day, and the industry’s estimated worth is over 40 billion rand.

Analysts said it could bring in much more if well regulated.

“Currently the minibus taxis are accounting for about 68.8 percent of land based transport, which means they are bigger than the buses and trains put together. The industry transports on a day and average of about 19 million passengers, so it is a very sustainable industry but also has a huge impact into the South African economy as well as the local communities,” said Bonisile Makubalo, director of corporate affairs at SA Taxi.

In Ghana, cab hailing service Uber made its entry as part of plans to expand across Africa.

The company was also trying to convince traditional taxi drivers to work with them to avoid friction seen in other countries.

The company which uses smartphone and GPS technology to link customers with drivers is popular for its cheaper fares and convenience, which in turn has seen many drivers enroll on the platform which guarantees them clients.

“It’s easy, it’s accessible, and you don’t have to struggle to bargain with taxi drivers or drivers because it gives you the actual amount depending on the kilometers or the distance you cover and the drivers too they’re nice so far the one’s that I’ve come across are very cool their cars are neat and they treat you well like the way a customer deserves to be treated,” said Uber client, Naa Oyoe Quartey.

Across the continent in Kenya, Uber drivers held protests against fare cuts. Uber had dropped the price per km to 35 shillings from 60 shillings ($0.59). It also cut the waiting rate per minute to 3 shillings from 4 shillings previously to boost demand for the service, amid growing competition from local firms.

“The reason we are here it’s because we have been aggrieved and it’s about the issue of cutting fares and being a driver partner I was not consulted and that is one of the major reasons why we have decided to come out on the streets not because we don’t love Uber, it’s a good company it’s a good technology company and we like working with it,” said Simon Mutembei, one of the drivers.

Uber operates in several African countries, including Kenya where it launched in early 2015.

Getting Around Ghana on Public Transport

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Guide to Public Transport in Ghana

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Getting Around Ghana on Public Transport

When traveling across Ghana, using public transport is almost unavoidable therefore hopefully this guide to public transport in Ghana will help you to get familiar with public transport options.

Surprisingly, public transport in this West African country can be either comfortable, relatively quick and on time either uncomfortable, slow and in “African-time style”. The latter is, obviously, cheaper but not that much. I would recommend you to try both “types” of public transport in Ghana, since both experiences are interesting in their own way.

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The most common way to get around Ghana are buses, trotros (minivans) and taxis.

Travelling by Bus in Ghana

Buses are usually used for longer distances and between most major cities. There are plenty of bus companies that offer the same routes. Roughly, I would divide the into two groups.

In one group, there are bus companies with better quality buses. These kind of companies have ticket offices where tickets can be bought in advance or just before the departure. In my experience, it is better to buy tickets in advance, especially if traveling before or during peak season, holidays etc, when ticket can be sold out faster. If you are not able to buy ticket at one bus company, you can always try with another one.

These kind of buses have comfortable seats (especially V.I.P. bus company), air condition, they more likely depart on actual time, are relatively fast and don’t stop on the way to pick up more people. Each of bus companies usually has only one station in one city and different bus companies are usually not situated together at the same station.

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana bus travel

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Good Bus Companies in Ghana

STC (State Transport Company),
V.I.P.,
GH Express.

Bus ticket prices in Ghana don’t really differ, but V.I.P. is just a little bit more expensive. Each of them usually leave couple of times in a day.

When traveling with bus in Ghana, note that you will always have to pay extra for your bigger pieces of luggage. At the STC company, STC staff will weight you luggage and you will pay per kilogram. It is not too expensive, but you are in Ghana, so you can always negotiate with staff. V.I.P. and GH Express don’t weight but just have “fixed” prices for the luggage, depends on the size.

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana Taxi prices

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In the other group of bus transport in Ghana, there are other (smaller) companies. Their buses are at lower quality and don’t use timetables. Tickets cannot be bought in advance since these bus companies don’t have their own offices. Buses also pick up more people on the way and can be very slow, but tickets are cheaper.

Trotros

Trotros are simply old minivans.

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana bus travel trotro

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Public Transport Prices in Ghana

Accra – Kumasi: 40 GHS, 4 hours (V.I.P. bus company)
Kumasi – Tamale: 40 GHS, 6-7 hours (STC bus company)
Standard trotro fare around Accra: 1 – 3 GHS
Standard taxi fare around Tamale: from 1 – 2 GHS
Short distance (approx 3 km) by taxi in Accra or Kumasi: 5 GHS
Tamale – Bolgatanga: 12 GHS (trotro)
Bolgatanga – Paga border: 12 GHS (shared car)

Guide to Public Transport in Ghana taxis have yellow belt

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