While huge sums are being invested in ports, to a lesser extent in road infrastructure, Africa’s rail networks have received less money in recent years. This negatively affects the economic potential of several countries on the continent.
by Adrian Barbulescu
Africa would need to invest an average of between 65 and 105 billion dollars a year by 2050 to catch up on infrastructure by providing the continent with an efficient rail system, according to the Africa Finance Corporation.
In a recent report, entitled “State of Africa’s Infrastructure Report 2024”, the financial institution identifies under-funding of investment as one of the main challenges facing rail transport. A problem that is exacerbated by other situations, such as lack of maintenance, under-utilization of rail transport and technological disparities. Due to lack of funding, plans to expand rail networks under the African Union’s Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) have made limited progress.
Only 4,000 km of the 30,200 km of rail that should be built on the continent by 2040 have so far been put into service. Also, several national projects have remained just promises or are running with the handbrake on due to lack of investment sources. In this situation are some projects in Nigeria, the standard gauge railroad between Kenya and Uganda or other plans in Tanzania, the paper notes.
If the aforementioned institutional level is achieved, the continent could have a rail network four times the size of the current one by 20230. This should improve the functionality of global supply chains and international trade in Africa. The benefits would include reduced transportation costs and congestion on the road network, reduced environmental impacts, improved connectivity, strengthened regional integration, and increased support for industrial development.
“For example, the new Djibouti/Addis Ababa rail line has considerably reduced the travel time between the port of Djibouti and the Ethiopian capital from three days to just 10-12 hours. The new Mombasa/Nairobi rail line has also considerably reduced the travel time between the two Kenyan cities, thus facilitating better logistics with the rest of the region, especially Uganda,” the AFC report said.
Extremely low density of rail networks
Currently, Africa’s rail network is about 87,000 km long, which is a low density given the continent’s surface area, the AFC says. India, for example, which is only 11% of Africa’s surface area, has a rail network that is almost 75% of the continent’s, according to the paper.
Nor is the existing network evenly distributed. North Africa and Southern Africa concentrate most of the existing network, leaving many sub-Saharan countries, i.e. landlocked and landlocked countries, without operational rail infrastructure.
Given the constraints on public finances, African countries should develop according to a new investment philosophy, emphasizing public-private partnerships and innovative financing mechanisms to attract capital and benefit from the expertise of private companies and institutions.
“It has become paramount to attract private sector capital to develop logistics infrastructure, including railways, and to improve cross-border connectivity. Public-private partnership models allow those who access them to draw on private sector expertise and resources for infrastructure development. Development finance institutions can play a key role in supporting the development of cross-border transport systems and regional corridors. Their involvement can help to reduce project risks and attract private sector capital,” the AFC report said.
The Chinese are “masters” for three years in Nigeria
The document piqued our curiosity, so we looked up what had happened in the last month in the countries mentioned by the Africa Finance Corporation. Even though they were presented as “black sheep” in the report, all four countries listed have “moved” in terms of railways during the period. But they still have a lot of catching up to do before catching up with countries like Egypt and Morocco, the leaders in rail transport on the African continent. We will therefore present what happened in November 2024 in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation has obtained a three-year license from the Nigerian Railway Corporation to operate freight services on the Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge railway line. 
The contract runs until October 2027 on a 157 km network inaugurated in 2021 and built by this Chinese multinational. This award is in line with the NRC’s policies to increase rail freight traffic, which is still low despite Nigeria’s increased capacity to generate traffic. To note only that in the first half of this year only 304,409 tons were transported by rail.
Rail transport has become the priority segment of government policies to improve Nigeria’s mobility and the overall logistics chain, which until now focused on the road network. The operation of this section by the Chinese group, which also runs a local wagon assembly plant, should pave the way for increased rail traffic.
According to the state’s overall strategy for the rail transport sector, major infrastructure projects are under construction or in the pipeline to better cover the national territory, including an interconnection with seaports and an extension to neighbouring countries, including Niger. A landlocked market that Nigeria is exploiting, hoping to become the main provider of logistics supply services.
Once these projects materialize, they should facilitate the migration of passengers and freight from the railways to the railways, where transport volumes are still at an unsatisfactory level. According to official NRC figures, only 1.4 million people travelled by rail in Nigeria during the first six months of 2024, and the volume of freight we have shown above.
This is explicable, one might say, considering the high level of insecurity that has been experienced in Nigerian rail transportation in recent years, with many terrorist attacks resulting in deaths, injuries and kidnappings. Aware of these problems, the Nigerian authorities have taken steps to improve passenger security on the railways in the hope of getting passengers back on trains.
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania – last-minute investments
And, as the AFC report was alluding to the Kenya-Uganda railroad being delayed, the authorities of the two African countries have acted. Landlocked Uganda is planning to make rail the main logistical means of transport for goods to and from the port of Mombasa in neighbouring Kenya. As a result, even though it has been delayed for several years, its standard-gauge rail project is finally materializing.
The construction of the Ugandan rail link was launched on Thursday, November 21, 2024, by the country’s President Yoweri Museveni, after he had signed the contract with the Turkish group Yapi Merkezi, worth 2.84 billion US dollars, a month earlier. The 1,700 km of railway will link the landlocked country to the rail network of neighbouring Kenya and the Indian Ocean seaport of Mombasa. More specifically, the new rail line will link Uganda’s easternmost region bordering Kenya with the Ugandan capital Kampala.
But we have to agree with the Africa Finance Corporation. This is because the project, as I said, has been delayed for years due to lack of funding. In 2015, Uganda awarded it to the China Harbour and Engineering Company (CHEC), with a clause that the Chinese group would mobilize the necessary funds. This clause was not respected and the contract was revoked last January.
Designed to become a key element in the supply chain, the railways should, once operational, significantly reduce logistical constraints, particularly in terms of costs and delays currently experienced on the road corridors, which currently play this role in trade with the neighbouring countries, particularly Kenya.
“This railway is part of a rationalization logic. Our transportation system is irrational. The roads are clogged with cars and goods. This slows traffic, increases traffic and destroys roads. To solve these problems, goods must be transported by rail and inland waterways, while petroleum products will be transported through pipelines,” said Yoweri Museveni.
According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the site should be completed within 48 months. Once completed, the railway will reduce transport costs from USD 0.155 per tonne km to just USD 0.05 per tonne km. It will also shorten travel time between the Kenyan port of Mombasa and the city of Kampala from 10-14 days to just one day, and cut road maintenance costs.
The rail network is one of the key infrastructures as defined in the East African Community Rail Master Plan. The new rail link should connect to the Northern Corridor, which will also include South Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in order to facilitate regional trade and foster economic integration in the region.
We’ll finish with Tanzania, where the first section of the standard gauge rail network entered commercial operation half a year ago. In the first months alone, one million passengers have travelled on this rail link, more than twice the annual traffic on the former metre-gauge line (400,000), according to official figures from the Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC).
It’s the 300-kilometer-long railway linking Dar es Salaam and Dodoma. Put into service in June 2024, this rail section has reduced travel time between the two ends from five to two hours (four hours by coach), according to the national rail authority. This performance best describes the impact of the modernization of rail services in Tanzania, where from now on they are positioned as a true backbone of the mobility of people and goods. The ultimate objective is to reduce the external pressure and costs of transportation on the road network, including financial, environmental, travel time, accidents, etc. costs.
The Dar es Salaam-Dodoma section is part of a larger 1,219 km network being developed to link Tanzania with Rwanda. Another phase envisages the construction of a 2,650 km-long 1,435 mm gauge network to interconnect other neighbouring landlocked countries such as Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Uganda, all of which use the port of Dar es Salaam.
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