The Railway, Instrument Of Sovereignty And Economic Take-Off Of Africa
The author François Nguilla Kooh, head of the cybersecurity division for the Société Nationale de Chemins de Fer de France (SNCF) group, has more than 25 years of experience in the field of research and new information technologies. Doctor in Computer Science, he holds a DEA in Artificial Intelligence, and an Executive MBA in Risk Management, International Security and Cybersecurity.
His book entitled, “Le Ferroviaire, Instrument de puissance” (Railway Instrument of Power) is first and foremost a testimony to the impact of railways in the world and more particularly in Africa. It is available on the websites va-editions.fr, Amazon.com, cultura.com, fnac.com etc. It gives a prospective vision of rail opportunities and describes the threats that Africa should integrate into its strategic vision of development and the quest for sovereignty.
François Nguilla Kooh, head of the cybersecurity division for the Société Nationale de Chemins de Fer de France (SNCF) group
Rail, the mother of developments
Africa still has the image of a continent for which the railroad is used for the extraction of raw materials, agricultural and forestry resources. But things are not immutable. For initiatives like SARA (Southern African Railway Association), the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), or the African Continental Free Trade Area (ZLECAF) rail is to be considered as an instrument of power. For the acceleration of the development of railway projects in Africa, the incentives with regard to the challenges are multiple.
Negative road transport externalities and modal shift to rail
The number of deaths from road accidents in relation to the number of inhabitants (27 per 100,000), injuries, difficult road transport conditions, various types of pollution and their effects on health induce prohibitive costs of negative externalities linked to the road in Africa. These external costs would keep several African countries below the 2% annual growth rate of per capita GDP, according to the May 2019 report by experts from the Europe-Africa 2030 Observatory*1. 1 billion invested in rail means 2 billion in savings for communities and populations. There are countries that are moving the lines. Senegal, for example, has most likely taken the measure of the 2021 report of the Executive Council for Sustainable Urban Transport (CETUD) and the World Bank. The estimated cost of 900 billion CFA francs of losses due to the negative externalities of road transport in this country corresponded to 6% of its GDP*2. In 2018, the World Bank in the report entitled The High Toll of Traffic Injuries: Unacceptable and Preventable*3 noted that the economic growth of African countries would be increased by reducing the negative impacts of road transport. For example, a country like Tanzania would see its GDP increase by 7% by 2038, by halving road accident deaths and injuries*4.
Africa, a growth driver for global companies in the rail sector
In 2016, Alstom won a contract in South Africa worth four billion euros for the delivery and manufacture of 600 X’Trapolis trains Mega: “it is quite simply the largest project in size ever obtained by Alstom in the world and in its history! “ *5 Said Gian Luca Erbacci again on March 4, 2016 to Jeune-Afrique. All the experts agree that the growth drivers in the rail sector for the major companies in the sector are to be found on the African continent for the next three decades. But beware of the leonine contracts that she denounces elsewhere.
The railway will significantly increase the purchasing power of Africans
The cost of transport within the African continent is prohibitive and is at the expense of investment and consumption capacities. The study commissioned in 2018 by the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) shows that internal transport in Central Africa *6 costs, on average, more than 6 times the import price paid between Antwerp in Belgium and the port of landing of the goods in the same region of Central Africa. Competitive rail freight would reduce consumer prices and increase people’s purchasing power.
The railway, an instrument of sustainable development and sovereignty
The railway will inevitably boost development along the areas crossed by the rails. It will regain its place as an instrument of food sovereignty and industrial development.
Systemic and multifaceted cyber threats
Africa arouses all desires, but does it take the measure of the threats that its rail sector will face? We should capitalize on what works best elsewhere. However, the lack of forward-looking vision taking into account standards, regulations, types of equipment, security solutions, new technologies, compliance and level of cybersecurity of suppliers, service providers and the entire supply chain would undoubtedly expose it to new threats. To guard against this, cybersecurity requirements should be integrated from the outset of the projects to deal with future threats of destabilization, sabotage, exfiltration of strategic data and/or those of a personal nature. For its digital security, the African railway must more than ever adopt the principles of defense in depth and Zero Trust (trust no one).
