What Factors Drive Transport and Logistics Costs in Africa?

We analyze the domestic transport and logistics costs of importing a 20-foot container into Africa. We run regressions on a panel of 50 African countries for the period 2006–2014 using the RE-2SLS estimator. Distance from port of arrival to the point of delivery is an important explanatory factor of cost. Time-varying variables yield additional and valuable information. Reducing processing times and adjusting the ratio of the purchasing power parity conversion factor to the market exchange rate would contribute to save on the cost to import.