According to (Deloitte, 2012:2) infrastructure remains the biggest obstacles towards Africa achieving its economic growth potential. The reason is that the challenges faced with infrastructure development are vast.
The article further discusses the challenges faced in infrastructure development namely:
Funding
Funding remains the biggest challenge facing infrastructure development. Most infrastructure projects are financed on loans and this has led to budgetary constraints in the majority of the projects.
Approval Processes
According to a KPMG survey of 2011, public sector officials have cited the slow approval processes as a challenge in spending infrastructure funds quickly and effectively.
Delivery Models
More delivery models and investment solutions make it difficult to identify the most efficient approaches.
Policy
In the absence of clearly defined policy directions, there is disinterest to initiate new projects.
African Monitor, (2012) also contends that, many African countries are
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Nuclear power plants are typically submitted to government agencies which is a problem. They should have an independent regulatory agency that is independent from the agency.
However Oppong (2014:14) study in Ghana on challenges facing Africa’s infrastructure development did not really match with Nielsen (n.d) challenges. It stated that challenges faced in African infrastructure development concerns poor governance structures and bad leadership, low technical and institutional capacity, lack of political consensus and weaker regional integration, corruption in leadership and institutions, low competiveness and diversification in infrastructure, low level of private sector and community involvement and financial challenges which are further discussed as follows:
Poor Governance Structure and Bad
The other point on which leaders reacted as one of the challenges was the financial constraint to facilitate instruments for property valuation, to pay compensation for the expropriated people. The researcher identified that, the Municipality and Land Development and Management did not identified effective use of source of revenue. But, first of all, the broad source budget should be identified. These are the internal and external revenue source. The internal income sources are the most decisive financial support levers accessible to a municipality because without effective, predictable generation of internal revenues, it will be impossible to attract new, external sources of funding (Anand Sahasranaman & Vishnu Prasad, 2014). External financial supports will be available to municipalities only on the basis of the internal revenues they generate now and are
Infrastructure is a key part of modern life; we use it every day without thinking about it, and because of this, it goes neglected. Most people only think about the road that they are driving on when they hit a pothole; infrastructure is invisible, until it breaks. The fact that infrastructure is largely invisible means it gets neglected and abused, it is not an issue most people think about, politicians do not win by talking about it, and any solution in the near term generally requires raising taxes, making the subject more unpopular for the citizenship at large. The longer we ignore our infrastructure problems, the more it will cost to fix, and the more likely it is for a disaster to happen.
Africa in all its existence to Europe has relied on others to decide what’s best for them. Africa is now in a Western style mode. This does not mean it should be there but it is now. The government has to start taking advantage of today’s capitalist economy. Money tends to keep people of all nations happier. With money everyone is guaranteed food, a home and a better chance at democracy.
Media coverage of such cases have made the public less comfortable with the idea of moving further towards nuclear power and they only opt for reducing human activities to reduce global warming. It is true that there have been some notable disasters involving nuclear power, but compared to other power systems, nuclear power has an impressive track record. First, it is less harmful and second, it will be able to cater for the growing world population. Nuclear power produces clean energy and it delivers it at a cost that is competitive in the energy market (Patterson). According to the US Energy Information Administration, there are currently 65 such plants in the Unite States (National Research Council). They produce 19 percent of the total US energy generation.
Job creation is a key factor for economic development. Toronto alone receives 100 000 immigrants each year, most of them in need of work. With Ontario’s investment in infrastructure, thousands of jobs would be created, not only in the construction industry but also within every industry indirectly affected by the construction. If we look back to 2008 during the recession, Ontario actually spent more on infrastructure knowing the job creation would significantly boost our economy. The Conference Board of Canada released a report in 2010 titled “The Economic Impact of Public Infrastructure in Ontario” which stated if we had not invested in infrastructure during the global economic crisis, Ontario alone would have lost 70 000 more jobs in 2009. This goes to show the truly immense impact our investment in infrastructure can have on Ontario’s economy. Basic Infrastructure not only helps a city or region in a functional way, it can also have an effect on the appearance of an area. If a city is physically attractive, businesses and labourers will be more inclined to migrate to that specific city rather than another, which in turn stimulates economic growth. This effect creates somewhat of a competitive nature between cities and businesses. The attractiveness of an area, in recent years, has had a huge effect on where people live and bring their business, especially in the knowledge-based economy we live in today. Cities throughout Ontario should want to attract investment, and developing infrastructure will only help them achieve
The management team was sceptical with regards to the project metrics and did not pay enough attention to the data.
...easured by Western standards, or seen as a problem of catching up to developed nations like the United States or Western Europe. (273) Africa needs the support and time from other countries to function properly to be able to meet countries same demands for technology.
...astructure and sturdy economy. In many countries across Africa do get aid from other countries and have seen a slight improvement in there economies going from having fifty percent of the population in poverty to recently changing to forty seven percent (___). This show that with help Africa’s struggle against poverty will improve. Poverty in Africa also causes many other problems that are form from not having money. Poverty in needs to be one of the most important worries they have in Africa. Countries must assist Sub-Saharan Africa to help it conquer its struggle with poverty.
Often, the goals and visions of the projects are not clearly discussed. The project management team doesn’t understand the needs of the organization.
Identify those stakeholders that may try to bring to a halt or slowdown the successful implementation of the project.
I investigated a career in Civil Engineering and chose to research a Hendricks County Highway Engineer. According to the O*NET website, the Inventory letters for this career are Realistic, Investigative and Conditional. Based on what I know about this career from the interview, these codes fit the job description well. The Realistic part of the description makes perfect sense because Civil Engineers need to be great when working with hands on problems to create solutions. According to Mr. Ayers, the person I interviewed, one of the most important qualities is to be able to work in practical and hands on situations, even if that does not mean construction models or prototypes. There are some days where Civil Engineers, such as Mr. Ayers will
...at development. Roads are not well developed in some parts of Africa which increase the transportation cost. Public investors are also not taking interest due to high cost of paved roads in Africa. The accident rate is also increasing as driving license is not compulsory for motorcycles. Health care facilities are also very less in Africa, which leads to deaths due to accidents and diseases. Less health workers, poverty, transportation problems all lead to less health care facilities which result in increase of death rates in Africa.
Ardnt, Channing, Paul Chinowsky, Kenneth Strzepek, and James Thurlow. "Climate Change, Growth and Infrastructure Investment: The Case of Mozambique. ." Review of Development Economics (n.d.): n. pag. Print.
50). The book also states that instances such as entrepreneurship leads to a struggling growth because these entrepreneurs will risk money investments where corrupt officials interfere, leaving their investments to struggle. Corrupt officials are also less likely to initiate projects that will help the greater good and public welfare of some of these African countries, but instead only interfere in ones that will benefit them as a leader. They deal with bribes and diverting funds, resulting in the countries inability to grow. If this corruption furthers on, then this will continually be a consistent struggle for Africa as it lessens their progression to a stronger