African Development Bank Leads $1.2 Billion Financing Syndication for Tanzania's Standard Gauge Railway Project

The African Development Bank has signed a coordination letter with Deutsche Bank and Société Générale to establish a syndication strategy to mobilize up to $1.2 billion for Tanzania’s Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) project.

The agreement, signed during the African Investment Forum’s 2024 Market Days in Rabat, Morocco, underscores the Bank’s role as the Initial Mandated Lead Global Coordinator in mobilizing financing for the project.

Tanzania’s Ministry of Finance is seeking to raise funds from the international debt capital markets to finance the construction of a 411-kilometer railway line between Tabora and Kigoma. The $2.3 billion project will connect Tanzania’s port of Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean to the port of Mwanza on Lake Victoria. From there, it will extend to neighbouring Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda. This will unlock economic potential by creating new mining and agricultural commodity corridors across Eastern and Central Africa.

Max Ndiaye, African Development Bank Senior Director for Syndications, Cofinancing, and the Africa Investment Forum, signed the coordination letter alongside Myriam Ouazzani, Deutsche Bank’s Managing Director for Africa, and Randolph Fotso, Société Générale’s Head of DFI Solutions, Development and Structured Export Finance.

The financing will be arranged in two tranches, with the African Development Bank coordinating the second tranche with contributions from development finance institutions, Export Credit Agencies, bilateral lenders, and multilateral development banks.