October 2025
The Africa Finance Corp. intends to launch a call for tenders from companies for the construction of a new railway link between the copper-rich region of Zambia and an existing line that leads to the Angolan port of Lobito in the coming months.
The call for tenders will be divided into three parts, declared Samaila Zubairu, president of the lender, in an interview in Washington this month. The first groundbreaking is planned for next year, and contracts will be awarded for the construction of railway links in Angola and Zambia, and for the supply of rolling stock and systems, he declared.
The Zambian link to Lobito will be the first major railway built in the country since China financed and helped build the Tanzania-Zambia line in the 1970s.
The project is taking place in a context of growing geopolitical competition for access to Africa’s critical minerals. While Washington has supported the Lobito link, China is undertaking a 1.4 billion dollar overhaul of the Tazara line.
The so-called Lobito Corridor project will help ensure that the growing copper production of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo can reach global markets, while creating local jobs in sectors such as agriculture that should benefit from improved infrastructure.
Africa’s young population is becoming increasingly impatient with the lack of opportunities, and the continent is in a race to create jobs, declared Zubairu. “The world must understand that it is in its interest to collaborate with us to create jobs,” he declared. “Because 400 million people without jobs represent a risk not only for Africa, but also for the entire world.”
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