Southern Africa: Public-private partnerships essential to unlock opportunities in SADC

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are essential to unlocking the economic opportunities presented by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the transport and logistics industry for the movement of goods across the continent, says the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

“Collaboration between the private sector and the government is key to unlocking opportunities. For example, the Lobito railway corridor is an abandoned project, where the private sector identified the opportunity and partnered with the government,” Bongo Bacela, said Thursday, senior DBSA deal originator.

The Lobito Corridor project involves the construction of almost 350 miles of railway lines in Zambia, along with hundreds of miles of feeder roads, which will link the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the northwestern part of Zambia with regional networks and global. markets through the port of Lobito in Angola.

The Lobito Corridor marks the beginning of countless new opportunities for economic growth and development that will unlock the region’s commercial competitiveness. This investment in infrastructure is a powerful catalyst for the establishment of small businesses along rail transportation routes, fostering local economic growth.

“They (Zambia) entered into a concession agreement because the state company that managed the line was struggling to do it efficiently, so given the experience and knowledge of the industry by the private sector, they entered into a concession agreement with the government.

“We believe that economic opportunities will be unlocked, traffic will be greater, both the DRC and Angola will benefit fiscally. Jobs will be created and the entire world will benefit from the minerals that will be transported in the runner,” Bacela said.

The bank is involved in several transport corridors in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

“We are involved in these projects because we understand that the region needs regional integration to promote trade between African countries so that we can achieve our development goals as a continent and improve economic activity between the different countries in the region.

“Without these (projects), there is now a way for countries to promote trade if we do not improve our transport infrastructure in the transport sector,” Bacela said during a webinar organized by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic). Thursday.

The bank is involved in financing the Lobito rail corridor, together with a US development finance institution.

“We are looking to provide financing to the tune of up to $200 billion. We see this as an important corridor because of the minerals that are coming out of the mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that must be evacuated and exported to markets such as China and the United States. Joined.

“Our interest is mainly focused on some of the transition minerals, such as lithium and some rare earth minerals, which come from mines in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” Bacela said.

The DBSA is a government-owned development financial institution whose mandate is to promote economic growth and regional integration for sustainable development projects and programs across the African continent.

It finances infrastructure projects in six sectors, namely transportation and logistics; Information and Communications Technologies (ICT); water and sanitation; energy and social housing.

“The government cannot be successful without the private sector and the private sector cannot be successful without the government because governments will have to issue the necessary licenses and permits for the private sector to operate the infrastructure,” Bacela said.

He cited regulations, skills shortages, funding shortages and currency mismatch as some of the challenges facing the transport and logistics sector in the region.