According to a recent publication on road network and infrastructure, Infrastructure made a net contribution of just over 2 percentage points to Botswana’s improved per capita growth performance in recent years.
Transportation in Botswana is provided by an internal and extensive network of railways, highways, ferry services and air routes that form a crisis crossing pattern throughout the country. Out of these, the rail network has lower fuel costs compared to road transport, especially when shipping high volume of freight. Comparatively, rail also has fewer costs associated with drivers and typically has better costs for drop trailer programmes. Shipping via train is more environmentally friendly. Trains burn less fuel per ton mile than trucks. This has seen a continual bias towards use of rail transport in ferrying goods, wherever possible.
Data from Transport Infrastructure Statistics shows that during the second quarter of 2021, a total of 273,058 net tones of goods were carried through rail. However, this was a decrease of 1.2 percent when compared to the first quarter of the same period. The decrease is likely as a result of seasonal changes and not any major event. The majority of these goods were transported during the month of April at 35.3 percent. Goods transported in June and May accounted for 33.2 percent and 31.5 percent respectively.
Goods destined for Botswana or originated for Botswana accounted for 83.2 percent whilst the rest were goods in transit. Exports made up 36.7 percent of the total net tones transported. Key to Botswana’s economy is the revenue of P53,392,000 that was generated from the transportation of the goods on the 971 kilometers (603 miles) of rail lines. However, this was a decline of 3.4 percent when compared to the last quarter. Much as rail should mainly be a trade facilitating tool, which partly justifies rail construction as a revenue generation investment.
This article was prepared by Data Collection & Analysis, a business research firm. Feedback or enquiries can be relayed to 76740658./ research@easternman.co.bw
