Rail projects proposed or under way on the southern continent will cost an estimated $60 billion. Railway projects totaling more than $60 billion are proposed or under way in sub-Saharan Africa. That estimate comes from Terrapin, which is organizing a major rail conference June 28-29 in Johannesburg. According to Terrapinn, projects in Uganda, Namibia, Batswana, Mali, and Nigeria have the largest budgets, ranging from $8 billion up to nearly $14 billion each. One massive project is a 3,000-kilometer rail line that will link Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo and Ghana. These nations and mining companies that operate within them are funding the project as the mining industry seeks to increase mineral exports from 109,000 tons a year to 3.4 million tons in 2020, a 30-fold increase. Without rail network, transport expensive The lack of a cross-border rail network has made transport expensive, especially in land-locked countries such as Niger, which derives 11 percent of its gross domestic product from mining, and Burkina Faso, which derives 13 percent of GDP from mining. The rail network also is expected to boost trade among the linked nations and drive economic development in other sectors. Nigeria also has ambitious plans for domestic rail lines, including one linking Lagos and Kano and another between Lagos and Calabar along the coast. Both were designed to ease commuter congestion and facilitate transport of goods. However, plans were thrown into doubt in April when the Nigerian National Assembly removed $300 million in funding for the...
Sub-Saharan Africa rail projects promise to increase trade
Posted on: April 27, 2016
Posted on: April 27, 2016