When the three heads of states from Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan commissioned the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor on March 2, 2012, it marked a great milestone for Africa in re-shaping the economic landscape, fostering integration, boosting trade and unlocking a wealth of opportunities.
This was after realisation that LAPSSET was more than just an infrastructure project which carried the transformative vision of not only the Eastern Africa countries but also for the entire continent.
This view is alluded in the African Union Agenda 2063 and the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa and was reinforced after the elevation of LAPSSET to Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative level in 2015.
Since its admission to PICI, LAPSSET has gained considerable visibility allowing multi-stakeholder engagement, creating synergies and opening up opportunities and interest from potential partners and investors.
The Lamu port, which lies along the Indian Ocean in Kenya, provides an anchor to the LAPSSET Corridor programme.
It is envisioned to connect the East Coast of Africa to the West Coast of Africa through the proposed EastWest Trans-African Beltway Corridor.
Its main components include the inter-regional standard gauge railway lines, inter-regional highways running parallel to the standard gauge railway, crude oil pipeline, product oil pipeline, merchant oil refinery and fibre optic cables.
Just like other regional trans-border infrastructure programmes, the prospects of LAPSSET corridor are to foster stronger integration with efficient transport system to facilitate trade and socioeconomic integration.
This starts by opening up the landlocked countries of Ethiopia and South Sudan to global maritime trade while facilitating trade and integration to a combined population of 185 million and with a GDP of $233 billion.
After completion, the LAPSSET Corridor is envisaged to link with the Trans-African Cape to Cairo Highway through the proposed East-West Trans-African Beltway Corridor.
This will cover three regional blocks and off er the possibilities of connecting 800 million people and integrating a region with more than one $1 trillion GDP.
Thus, LAPSSET corridor is critical in accelerating the implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Area by enhancing interconnectivity and movement of goods and services across Africa.
As a pan-Africanist, I believe that that regional integration goes beyond the construction of hard infrastructure development.
In Africa there are eight Regional Economic Communities founded extremely on the premise of geographical location and socioeconomic profiles.
This is geared towards facilitating regional economic integration and addressing regional economic imbalances.
However structural economic transformation has eluded many economies in Africa due to weak institutional arrangements such as common laws and standards in operations among the RECs.
Along those lines, I am aware that Kenya, South Sudan and Ethiopia are at the advance stage of setting up a LAPSSET regional coordination framework to take control of LAPSSET implementation and facilitate seamless utilisation of the completed components of the corridor.
Truly, this is one way for African countries to conquer the challenges experienced in the implementation of cross border infrastructure programmes.
Although Africa is the least-integrated continent physically and economically with mounting infrastructure deficit, the potential of LAPSSET corridor in influencing connectivity across Africa is paramount.
Among the nine trans African highways, four (Algeria-Lagos, Tripoli- Windhoek, CairoGaborone and Lagos-Mombasa) cut through LAPSSET corridor and others are linked to LAPSSET.
It is evident that these transport corridor complements each other.
Therefore, as African leaders, we need to moot new ideas of accelerating the completion these transport corridors.
I believe that the African Union Commission should champion full implementation of infrastructure programmes under PIDA Priority Action Plan II.
Author is the former Prime Minister and African Union Commission candidate
