Transport and Electricity Infrastructures and Economic Growth and Development in Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries

Abstract

Economic postulations suggest that the interrelationship between changes in incomes, capital and labour which can be substituted into macroeconomic neoclassical and steady-state growth theories drives economic development. Arising from the above economic axiom, this study investigated the impact of transport and electricity infrastructures on economic development and growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The study used panel data from fifteen (15) sub-Saharan African countries. Panel data were obtained from statistical bulletins of the various countries and World Bank Indicators (WBI) from 2000-2022. Data obtained were analyzed via descriptive, diagnostic and inferential statistics. Specifically, the fixed and random effects regression revealed that while there is a significant relationship between transportation and electricity infrastructures and economic growth, an insignificant relationship was found between transportation and electricity infrastructures and economic development in the selected sub-Saharan African countries. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that governments in sub-Saharan Africa needs to increase their contributions and support for electricity and transportation infrastructures; this can be done by increasing budgetary allocation for critical infrastructures in countries of sub-Saharan Africa