Angola, DR Congo and Zambia Ink Lobito Corridor Agreement

On 27 January 2023, Angola, DR Congo and Zambia signed the Lobito Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (#LCTTFA) Agreement at Benguela, Angola. The Agreement has received support from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) which sees this the Lobito Corridor as a flagship project for the region.

Ricardo Daniel Sandão Queirós Viegas de Abreu, Minister of Transport of Angola; Museba Frank Tayali, Minister of Transport and Logistics of Zambia and Kalala Mayiba Constantin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the DRC to Angola attended the ceremony and signed the Agreement.

The #LobitoCorridor takes its name from the starting point at the seaport of Lobito in Angola. It then crosses Angola from West to East passing through the Provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bie and Moxico. Then, it connects with the Cobalt-rich region of Katanga of DR Congo and the Copperbelt of Zambia.

Angola will rehabilitate a 1,348-km railway line between the seaport of Lobito and Luau on the Angola-DRC border. In DR Congo, the National Railway Company of Congo will also rehabilitate another 427-km stretch between Kolwezi and Dilolo. Zambia will be responsible for the railway line from the DRC border to Ndola in the Copperbelt Province. Zambia is also contemplating a secondary rail brach which will link Solwezi to Luacano in Angola without passing through DRC.

The instrument will create a framework for the three #SADC member states to jointly develop harmonized regulatory frameworks and the integration of systems and procedures in line with the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020-20230, Regional Infrastructure Development Master Plan 2020-2027 and Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap 2020-2063. The new Economic Corridor lays emphasis Local Value Addition (#LVA) and also makes provision for the integration of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) into the regional value chains.