Road Freight Transport in Ethiopia With Special Emphasis on Addis Ababa - Djibouti Corridor
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Date
2006-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia, with an estimated population of 75 million and an area of about 1.14
million square km, is one of the largest countIies in Africa.
In Ethiopia, as in many other developing countries the road infrastructure and the
freight transpOIt vehicles in terms of size, age and capacity, are not sufficient to support
the growth in the economic activities. With economic growth, the demand for freight
transport soared and consequently shortages and congestion problems surfaced.
The objective of this study is to give an overall view in the development of road
freight transpOlt with respect to current and future expectations. The basis for embarking
on this study is to present the features of the road freight transpOIt and its development
treads. So as to enable the stakeholders, both in public and private, be fully aware and
make decisions on policy, operation and investment.
One of the findings of the study is the limited Road Network extension. Though
road freight transport is recognized as the backbone for the economic development of
Ethiopia, assuring more than 90% of freight movement, it appears to be still not
respondent to the demands because of infrastructure conditions. Transit roads from ports
and internal transport infrastructure are very limited in extension and can serve only a
part of the country.
Another finding of the study is that the commercial road freight transport is
performing under difficult conditions due to vehicular and regulatory problems. Though
the average growth of registered vehicles in the last fifteen years has been about 5%, the
fleet is quite small for the size and population of Ethiopia. Among the total dry cargo
vehicles size 74.35% constitute vehicles with off-take capacity less than 12 tons. The
stock of freight transport vehicles have an average age well over 15 years and suffer from
old age. Also, dry cargo freight transpOIt industry is dominated by three concentrations
of commercial transpOIt operators (parastatals and associates, association, share
companies), which tend to protect their market share. The role of foreign capital
investment in the dry cargo freight transport sector is extremely restricted.
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Keywords
Transport in Ethiopia