Uganda: African Development Bank Group pledges $301 million to renovate the country’s meter gauge railway and bolster regional trade | African Development Bank

The African Development Bank Group is making $301 million available for the overhaul of the Kampala-Malaba Meter Gauge Railway (MGR) in Uganda. The railway is part of the Northern East African Community Corridor that connects the capital city of Kampala to the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa.

The East African Community Railway Rehabilitation Support Project will strengthen rail services and reduce transportation costs in a region of farmland, mineral and petroleum production and production.

The funding approved by the Group’s Board of Directors on Wednesday consists of loans and grants from the Africa Development Bank and its concessional lending window, the African Development Fund.

The works include the immediate rehabilitation of 265 km of MGR tracks between Malaba and Mukono, including the line to Jinja Pier and Port Bell on Lake Victoria.

The project includes training and skills development for railway staff. It will also integrate nature-based solutions, including tree planting, to improve the tracks’ climate resilience.

Speaking at the council’s approval, Akinwumi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank Group, said “railways are critical to unlocking the heart of Africa, where there is huge agricultural and economic potential.” He said rail lines would also play an important role in connecting rural special agricultural processing zones, which the African Development Bank promotes, to markets and other vital logistics hubs. “Rail lines should not simply connect ports with mines,” Adesina said. He added that it is encouraging to see African governments investing in rail transport. The project was supported by the Cabinet and Parliament of Uganda.

The MGR Kampala-Malaba is part of the multimodal Northern Corridor route, which includes road transport from Mombasa in Kenya to landlocked Uganda and neighboring countries, including Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and eastern DR Congo. The corridor also has maritime connections to the inland waterways of Lake Victoria.

Rail is seen as a safer and cheaper mode of transport than road, but currently over 90% of traffic along the Northern Corridor is transported by road, while only 7% is by rail due to poor infrastructure. As a result, transport costs along the corridor are relatively high.

The project is expected to directly benefit nearly 1.2 million people, approximately 40% of whom are women.

The project is aligned with Uganda’s Vision 2040 national strategy and the East African Community’s Vision 2050, which aims to deepen trade and transform East Africa into a globally competitive upper-middle-income region. The East African Community Railway Rehabilitation Support Project also promotes the African Union Agenda 2063 and three of the African Development Bank’s top 5 operational priorities: to integrate Africa, to industrialize Africa and to improve the quality of life of the people of Africa.