The World Bank has stated that despite the significant growth in agricultural output across Sub-Saharan Africa, the region is still grappling with food insecurity, leaving many without access to nutritious meals.
In a newly released report titled ‘Transport Connectivity for Food Security in Africa: Strengthening Supply Chains’, the institution pointed to poor logistics as a major hindrance to food availability and affordability.
The document, co-authored by Charles Kunaka, Megersa Abera Abate, Théophile Bougna Lonla, and Kisanet Haile Molla, urges African countries to shift their focus towards more efficient transport systems.
According to the bank, “despite rising agricultural production, food security continues to be a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, with too many people still struggling to access nutritious meals.”
While factors such as lagging productivity growth, conflict, climate change, and economic instability were cited as contributing to the crisis, the report emphasised that a critical aspect is often left out of the conversation: food transportation.
“But one critical issue often gets overlooked: how food moves.
“Weak transport and logistics systems delay deliveries, drive up costs, and increase food waste. This report examines how four major staples—cassava, maize, rice, and wheat—move across the continent. Poor roads, inefficient border crossings, and supply chain bottlenecks mean that food in Sub-Saharan Africa takes on average four times longer to reach consumers than it does in Europe,” it wrote.
The inefficiencies highlighted in the report contribute not only to delays and high transportation costs but also lead to significant spoilage. It reveals that “36 per cent of food” is lost between farms and consumers due to underdeveloped logistics infrastructure.
Furthermore, the World Bank criticised African nations for leaning on distant markets for food imports instead of engaging in regional trade. It noted: “A major barrier is that many African countries import food from distant markets rather than trade with neighbours. This happens because local roads and transport networks are not reliable or efficient, and restrictive trade policies make it easier to buy food from overseas than from neighbouring countries.”
To tackle this issue, the bank recommends strategic investment in local transport infrastructure and more integrated trade policies.
“At the World Bank Group, we recognise how urgent the problem is. Food and nutrition security is one of our top global priorities.
“Through initiatives such as the Food Security and Nutrition Action Plan and Global Challenge Programs, we are working with countries to build stronger and more resilient food systems—ones that can withstand shocks, improve access, and ensure food reaches those who need it the most,” the report noted.
Alarmingly, the food-insecure population in Africa has risen sharply in the past decade. The report states that the number of people lacking reliable access to food has soared by 60 per cent in the last 10 years.
“Many countries in Africa still struggle to produce enough food to meet their needs.
“Although over the past 30 years agricultural production in Africa increased by 160 per cent—more than the global average of 100 per cent—the food-insecure population paradoxically grew faster than in any other region in the world, and the productivity gains were not sufficient to offset the continent’s persistent food insecurity challenges.”
It continued, “Over the past 10 years, for example, the food-insecure population in Africa grew by 60 per cent, whereas agricultural productivity increased by 20 per cent during the same period, suggesting that the level of productivity was not enough to address the continent’s food insecurity problem.”
