- Last week The African Development Bank and Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) join the United States and the European Union in support of Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia to develop the Lobito Corridor and the new Zambia-Lobito rail line have signed a seven-side Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on the margins of the Global Gateway Forum in Brussels, Belgium.
The MoU outlines the intentions of the signatories to collaborate across multiple sectors to realize the full economic potential of the Corridor, building on the Lobito Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency agreement signed by the three African governments in January and anchored by historic, envisioned investment in developing the Zambia-Lobito greenfield rail line.
The AFC has been appointed lead project developer to work with the other signatories. The proposed line runs from Luacano in Angola to Kalumbila in Zambia, continuing to connect with the existing network at Chingola, which runs across the border to the DRC.
Demonstrating the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) in action and leveraging both Western and African capital, this strategic transport infrastructure unlocks regional trade and enables additional investments in digital connectivity, agriculture value chains, green energy supply chains and rural health center electrification, among other transformative economic imperatives.
“The new line, connecting northwest Zambia to the Lobito Atlantic Railway and the port of Lobito, represents the most significant transport infrastructure that the United States has helped develop on the African continent in a generation and will enhance regional trade and growth as well as advance the shared vision of connected, open-access rail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean,” says the US State Department’s PGI special coordinator, Ms Helaina Matza.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
