Algeria has been actively pushing ahead with the construction of the Trans-Sahara Highway, after six decades of delay, and consultations have been active with Algeria’s five partner states: Tunisia, Niger, Mali, Chad, and Nigeria. The highway can potentially stimulate a significant increase in the flow of trade and investment between the six states. Its long route through the Sahara, 10,000 km long through six states, serves as a positive example of cooperation and coordination to achieve common goals in this region.
The latest meeting of the committee in charge of the project was held in Algiers last July, attended by the relevant ministers from the participating states, as well as national and international financial institutions. The Algerian Minister of Public Works, Kamel Nasseri, announced following the meeting that approximately 90% of the highway has been completed.
Political Objectives
The highway project, in addition to enhancing regional cooperation, also serves a number of political objectives for Algeria, the most important of which are:
Strengthening African alliances: The trans-Saharan highway will connect nations across the Sahara Desert, thereby better integrating the land locked Sahel countries. The six participating states account for 27 % of Africa’s GDP, and 25 % of its total population. The project will require a legal framework to regulate trade, taxation, and customs duties, as well as security guarantees for travelers and their goods. Therefore, it is an important means of making alliances and promoting African integration.
It is important to note that the Trans-Sahara highway is to be linked to Chinese Belt and Road project, via the Algerian port of Cherchell, which is an important node in the Chinese logistical network. This will also make Algeria a future transit zone for European goods into sub-Sahara’s African markets, as transport by road is less expensive.
Promoting Algerian influence in Africa: Algeria has been concentrating more of its attention on Africa, as the most suitable market for its products. Algeria has faced significant obstacles in concluding a partnership agreement with the European Union, and faces fierce competition from Asian products, especially from China and India, in the Arab markets. Thus, in view of the political and economic goodwill Algeria enjoys on the continent, it is focusing on African markets. This has been facilitated by the Free Trade Agreement between African States concluded in 2020, that it is hoped will promote regional economic integration. According to Reza Terre, head of the National Economic, Social and Environmental Council, the highest consultative body to the Presidency of the Republic of Algeria, “The Trans-Sahara route will make our country [Algeria] the main northern gateway to the African market in the future, especially after the completion of the mega-project in the port of Cherchell.”
Crowding out Morocco: Algeria is in competition with Morocco, who has strong links with West African States, through ports such as the Tanger-Med, Casablanca, as well as Dakhla , which is still under construction. Algeria has an interest in establishing its own strong economic and trade ties with Africa, in view of Morocco’s efforts to deepen its own ties in West Africa, as exemplified by the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline. Algeria has been attempting to activate an alternative pipeline project, 4,600 km long, that passes through Nigeria, Niger and Algeria, which would put pressure on the Rabat-Abuja gas pipeline project.
Economic Benefits
The Trans-Sahara Highway also promises several economic wins for Algeria, most notably:
An economic corridor to Sub-Saharan Africa: The government is seeking to leverage the Trans-Sahara Highway, which connects Algeria with Nigeria’s capital, Lagos, as a privileged economic corridor, through which trade can be promoted and facilitated. Algeria can use it to export its goods, as well as establishing a network of Algerian banks to facilitate financial transactions.
Moreover, Algeria is relying on this highway to link its ports in the north with Africa’s hinterlands, thereby promoting economic activity that will be a source of income, improve growth rates and create jobs for all the countries through which it passes. It also opens up new prospects in the Sahel states for access to Algeria’s ports and services.
Increasing intra-African trade: The synergy between the Free Trade Zone, the Trans-Sahara Highway and the developments of northern ports, will help Algeria raise its intra-African trade to approximately 52% of its total trade, compared with 16 per cent currently. The Trans-Sahara Highway would significantly decrease the expensive transport bill, which accounted for about 50 % of the value of goods, reducing it by between 20 and 25 %.
Moreover, it will help diversify Algeria’s exports outside of petroleum, through the exchange of goods, the promotion of intra-investment and economic integration. Accompanied by social development and political stability, reduced transport costs will lower the price of goods, and improve purchasing power. This is demonstrated by a World Bank study in 2021, that reported the cost of transport in developing countries, primarily African states, as almost three times higher than in developed countries that enjoy large road networks in good condition.
Activating gas pipeline projects: Algeria hopes to revive a longstanding pipeline project in tandem with the new highway. The MOU regarding the Trans-Sahara gas pipeline project, aiming to transport natural gas from Nigeria to Europe through Niger and Algeria was signed in January 2002 between Algeria and Nigeria. In February 2009, the implementation of the project was agreed. The gas line, which is 4,128 km long, runs from Nigeria to Niger and then to Algeria, to export gas to the European market and is intended to transport 30 billion cubic meters of Nigerian gas to Europe.
Algeria regards the Trans-Sahara Highway as a strategic project, that will allow it access to a market with a population exceeding 700 million, in the six participating countries, and adjacent countries in central and western Africa. This is likely to provide economic stimulation to several sectors, including trade, tourism, and mining. It will also enhance Algeria’s regional influence and standing. However, the project will require significant effort from all the countries involved, to guard it against adverse weather conditions, such as sandstorms, and to provide security against the various militant groups active in Niger, Mali, Nigeria and Chad.