Tim Har­ford, the Under­cover Econ­o­mist, takes a look at the prob­lems with the trans­porta­tion net­work in west Africa and dis­cusses how this is a major fac­tor in the region’s stunted development.

Pity the entre­pre­neur who wants to do busi­ness under such con­di­tions. If goods travel at 75 miles a day […] it is almost impos­si­ble to import mate­ri­als or export prod­ucts prof­itably from Africa’s back­wa­ters. The eco­nomic geo­g­ra­phers Nuno Limão and Tony Ven­ables have esti­mated that high trans­port costs explain almost all of Africa’s eco­nomic iso­la­tion. Cer­tainly, exporters have not been able to take full advan­tage of US and EU trade concessions.