Business executives whose companies are doing business in Uganda think that the quality of the country’s roads is good, but could be better. That seems to be the key message from the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) quality of roads ratings 2019.
The “quality of roads” is one of the indicators that WEF uses to calculate countries’ global competitiveness index, undertaken annually.
On a scale of 1-7; 1 being the poorest and 7 the best, Uganda scored 3.9, placing the country at position 91 globally, of the 144 countries assessed last year. This puts Uganda behind Rwanda – the best performer in the East African region with 4.8 rating, at global position 39. Within East Africa, Rwanda is followed by Kenya and Tanzania which both score 4.10. Burundi, like Uganda scored 3.9.
According to the report, the best quality of roads in Africa are found in Namibia which rates the same as Sweden with a score of 5.3, Egypt (5.0), Mauritius and Morocco both at 4.7. A prominent name on the other extreme of the worst quality of roads in the African region is Nigeria (tying with Gabon) at 2.5. Both countries are leading crude oil producers. The mineral rich DR Congo (2.10) and oil rich Angola at 2.2 also fall in the bottom five of the 144 countries assessed. Chad has the worst roads anywhere in the world, scoring only 1.9.
The quality of roads assessment is deriving by posing just one question to business executives in any one country: Rate the quality of roads in your country of operation on a scale of 1-7 (under developed to well develop. The individual responses are then aggregated to come up with the country score.
Going by this measurement, the best quality of roads anywhere in the world are found in Singapore (6.5), Netherlands (6.4), Switzerland (6.3), Hong Kong (6.10) and Japan (6.1). China’s magnificent expressways and thoroughfares could only place the Asian country in position 44, globally, with score of 4.6.
