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The News The Africa Finance Corporation named a European-Turkish consortium to build a railway line through Zambia, the development of which will be a major step in the US-backed Lobito Corridor project to transport critical minerals and metals to Angola’s Atlantic coast. The multibillion-dollar development, which also includes upgrading Angola’s railway, is part of Washington’s attempt to challenge China’s dominance in Africa’s mining export market. Italy’s Webuild, Portugal’s Mota-Engil, and Turkey’s İçtaş were picked as the preferred bidders for Zambia’s 515-kilometer brand-new stretch of the Lobito railway. Mota-Engil, which counts China Communications Construction Company as a shareholder, and Brazil’s Odebrecht Engineering and Construction were selected for the Angolan section. Contract talks are due to start next month and are expected to last eight to 12 weeks, Lagos-based development financier AFC said. The route’s construction could cost up to $5 billion, according to an environmental study. But when interviewed by Semafor, AFC CEO Samaila Zubairu declined to give a figure while contract talks were underway. The Lobito Corridor is one of Africa’s most closely watched infrastructure projects because it is seen as the first major attempt by Western powers to create an alternative export route for critical metals such as copper and cobalt, regarded as crucial for economic and national security. It is widely presented as a response to the Belt and Road Initiative, in which China spent more than a decade building influence through the construction of ports, railways, and mining assets. But Zubairu rejected criticism that Lobito is just about shipping African resources out of the continent, telling Semafor that the corridor would be a catalyst for industrialization across Angola, Zambia, and neighboring DR Congo. “Any time you export raw material, you export the opportunity to create jobs, and all you do is import inflation,” he said. To back up his argument he pointed to a 2021 study commissioned by AFC and others, which found that a vital part of battery production could be done more cheaply, and with lower emissions, in DR Congo than in China or in Poland. AFC is also pitching the Lobito energy corridor, with Zubairu saying the lender is discussing power line infrastructure that would move electricity from Angola, which is estimated to have 2 gigawatts — or roughly the equivalent to the output of Angola’s Lauca hydropower, one of Africa’s largest — of stranded hydroelectric power that could support industrial activity along the route. Know More The Lobito Corridor builds on the colonial Benguela Railway, which once carried minerals from central Africa’s copperbelt to Angola’s Lobito port. Interest in reviving and expanding the route surged after the US, EU, Angola, Zambia, and DR Congo backed the project in 2023. As of April, AFC had secured commitments for roughly 1 million tonnes of cargo annually. Italy has already committed financing support, and AFC has secured letters of intent from SACE, Italy’s export credit agency. Washington says it has mobilized more than $4 billion of US investment for the project. Asked why no African companies made the final cut for building the railway, Zubairu said AFC prioritized builders with a proven track record of delivering large infrastructure projects “on time and on budget,” and with the guarantees required by lenders. “I’m hoping that the next time we’re doing a project like this, it actually comes from Africa,” he said. Step Back AFC is also developing a guarantee program modeled on Nigeria’s InfraCredit in an effort to channel African pension-fund money into infrastructure. AFC announced a $1 billion risk-sharing program with Munich Re under which the German reinsurer will take a share of the lender’s short-term trade finance exposures across 38 banks in 11 African countries. Reuters reported in April that AFC was in talks with at least 10 lenders to raise $3 billion to $5 billion, aiming to wrap up all financial agreements in late 2027. The African Development Bank approved a $255 million first tranche for Zambia’s part in the corridor in August. Notable - The Trump administration has embraced the Lobito Corridor project as a model for its “America First” Africa policy, with its top Africa diplomat citing the corridor at his confirmation hearing.
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