Rail and road corridors: major works speed up
Algeria is moving forward on the Algiers-Tamanrasset corridor with 878 million dollars from the African Development Bank for the Laghouat-Ghardaïa-El Meniaa section, together with public utility decrees for the Saharan stretches and a target opening at the end of 2028.
Morocco is raising 105.5 billion dirhams for the Kenitra-Marrakech high-speed line, motorways and airports, through financial arrangements that ease the pressure on the state budget. In Tunisia, the World Bank and the EIB are pushing for the Kasserine-Sfax corridor tender, worth 850 million dinars, to be issued before the end of 2026. Uganda is seeking to close the financing of its Malaba-Kampala line with a 150 million euro loan from the OPEC Fund, with financial close pushed back to January 2027.
$878m
Algeria, Laghouat-Ghardaïa-El Meniaa section
MAD105.5bn
Morocco, high-speed rail, motorways and airports
TND850m
Tunisia, Kasserine-Sfax corridor
€150m
Uganda, Malaba-Kampala line
Energy: mass electrification and large-scale solar
Burkina Faso has launched the presidential initiative Faso Wa-Fulu, worth 2,800 billion CFA francs over ten years, to electrify 6,700 localities and 3.5 million households by 2030 through dedicated electrification brigades and grid reinforcement. In Niger, the African Development Bank has approved a 144.34 million dollar loan for energy governance and private sector support.
Rwanda has tendered a 200 MW floating solar project paired with 800 MWh of storage. Egypt has secured 566 million dollars for the Nefer Minya project, 1.2 GWp with 600 MWh of batteries, set to become the largest solar plant on the continent. The Economic Commission for Africa has also welcomed the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline as a major project for regional energy security.
The Egyptian project is announced in MWp and the Rwandan one in MW; the order of magnitude remains comparable.
SourcesAPA NewsBanque africaine de développementPV MagazineZawyaChallenge
Mining: local processing at the heart of strategy
At the Mining in Motion summit in Accra, African leaders, among them Ghanaian president Mahama, called for more local mineral processing in order to capture more value, with targets such as a ban on raw ore exports by 2030.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe are making progress on local refining of lithium, cobalt and copper, supported by cross-border special economic zones and export restrictions. In West Africa, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea are multiplying initiatives to regain control of the gold sector, notably by building local refineries.
1st
Lithium refinery on the continent, commissioned in Zimbabwe
2030
Ghanaian deadline for ending raw ore exports
3
Countries advancing on local refining: DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe