The Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission has identified eleven (11) promising corridors for transport and trade in Africa including Cabo Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire.
A recent JRC study highlights how targeted investments in these strategic trade routes could significantly enhance mobility, trade efficiency, and sustainable development across the continent.
The corridors, running through more than 30 African countries, aim to unlock economic potential, improve accessibility, reduce carbon emissions, promote digitalization, and support biodiversity protection.
The report evaluates the development potential of the corridors, revealing that transport and accessibility offer the greatest return on investment, particularly in areas with fast-growing populations and high urban congestion.
Additional benefits include boosting agricultural productivity, supporting raw material value chains, and improving access to basic services like health and education.
One corridor of particular interest to West Africa is the Praia-Dakar-Abidjan corridor, which links Cabo Verde, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d’Ivoire.
The corridor offers strong potential to stimulate regional trade and integrate under-connected productive zones, especially those involved in mining and agriculture.
Other key corridors include:
Abidjan-Lagos (Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria)
Libreville-Kribi-Douala-N’Djamena (São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Chad)
Dar es Salaam-Nairobi-Addis Ababa-Berbera-Djibouti (Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti)
Maputo-Gaborone-Walvis Bay-Lüderitz (Mozambique, South Africa, Eswatini, Botswana, Namibia) And several others spanning Central, East, and Southern Africa
The corridors are part of the EU’s Global Gateway strategy, launched during the 2022 EU-AU Summit in Brussels. This strategy seeks to build smart, clean, and secure connections in the digital, energy, and transport sectors, while promoting mutually beneficial trade and investment partnerships.
One of the report’s notable findings is that digitalization remains the most challenging area for investment, especially in rural and remote regions.
However, combining fixed (fiber optic) and mobile (antenna-based) infrastructure could yield results tailored to specific geographic and demographic conditions.
The environmental impact was also evaluated. All corridors show potential for carbon footprint reduction and biodiversity conservation, due to existing levels of emissions and limited forest cover.
These environmental efforts complement broader EU goals around green energy, clean trade, and sustainable development.
The analysis is expected to guide EU Delegations, the European Investment Bank, member states, and other international partners in prioritizing investments that can deliver high-impact results. The development of these corridors will also support territorial development, both rural and urban, by enhancing logistics, energy, and digital infrastructure.
As the EU deepens its engagement with Africa, these trade corridors represent a critical pillar of future cooperation-linking economic development with environmental responsibility and regional integration.
