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US President Joe Biden announced more than $560m of new funding for the Lobito Corridor transport infrastructure project during his state visit to Angola.
The Corridor, which is being billed as the biggest US-supported infrastructure scheme on the continent, will connect the Port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast with Zambia with a focus on modernised rail infrastructure.
Biden, who is embarking on his first and last visit to Africa as president before he leaves office in January, expressed approval for the progress made on the Corridor since its launch under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) at the 2023 G7 Summit, and announced more than $560m in new funding.
The commitments are expected to generate at least $200m in additional private sector capital for infrastructure projects along the Corridor, according to the White House, bringing the total US investments to more than $4bn – with international partners included the total rises to over $6bn. Plans are underway to extend connectivity to Tanzania’s Port of Dar es Salaam, linking the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and building up regional trade and integration across East and Southern Africa.
Speaking at the Carrinho Food Processing Factory in Benguela, in front of counterparts Joao Lourenço of Angola, Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia, as well as the vice president of Tanzania, Philip Isdor Mpango, Biden said that the Corridor offered “investments in all of our futures.”
“Imagine how transformative this will be for technology, clean energy, for farming, for food security as a whole. It’s faster, it’s cleaner, it’s cheaper, and — most importantly, I think — it’s just plain common sense…
“Critical minerals our world needs for electric vehicles and semiconductors can be found here. Clean energy we need to power artificial intelligence data centers and economic growth can be built here. Food we need to end hunger can be grown and transported and exported from all across this Corridor. Put simply…nations across the Lobito Corridor have solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems.”
Will Trump back the Corridor?
The Corridor is planned as part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, a G7 initiative designed to compete with Chinese influence on the continent. But Alex Vines, director of the Africa Program at Chatham House, wrote that the Corridor will support more than just US geopolitical ambitions.
“The Lobito project is aimed to compete with China. But both Western and Chinese firms will be able to use the infrastructure it delivers…That may make its value questionable to Trump, a US president who will likely define his administration in large measure by competition with Beijing.
“(But) African leaders living in a multipolar world will not tolerate being caught up in a competition between Washington and Beijing. Should Trump fail to back Lobito, EU and African Development Bank investment is likely to continue.”
David Omojomolo, Africa economist at Capital Economics, writes that he “suspect(s) US investment in the project will continue under President Trump, given there’s a clear incentive for when it comes to securing critical minerals and challenging China’s influence.”
AFC offers bulk of new funding
A major part of the new commitment for the Corridor comes from the African Finance Corporation (AFC), whose president and CEO Samaila Zubairu addressed Biden and his African counterparts. The AFC says it will commit up to $500m in financing for the Lobito-Zambia greenfield rail, one of the Corridor’s flagship projects, for which it acts as lead developer.
“This investment reflects our confidence in the project’s transformative potential to deliver economic benefits that transcend borders. We will mobilise African pension funds to invest alongside us, ensuring generational sustainability.
“We will also partner with other MDBs and financial institutions to cocreate instruments that crowd in global institutional capital, as was successfully done in markets such as Japan and the Gulf,” Zubairu said.
Zubairu also said AFC has established an agreement with critical minerals firm KoBold Metals as an anchor client on the line, guaranteeing a minimum of 300,000 tons of copper and related freight per year. KoBold Metals is a California-based startup whose backers include billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
The AFC has also committed $100m to Kobaloni Energy to support Zambia’s first battery-grade copper sulphate facility, ensuring sustained movement of cargo on the new railway.
“The Lobito Corridor is more than just a rail line—it is an economic corridor that provides a lower-cost, lower-carbon gateway to African integration and global competitiveness,” Zubairu said.
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