Supported by the African Development Bank, regional corridors have been playing a key role in the integration of the continent, with the AfCFTA regarded as a particularly important milestone.
“It is only via regional corridors that we will be able to move goods and services easily across the continent, reduce transport costs, encourage integration and achieve effective economic development,” Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, said recently.
Major investment in Africa's regional corridors is at the heart of the strategies that will be the focus of discussions at the 2025 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank Group, scheduled to take place in Abidjan from 26 to 30 May under the theme “Making Africa’s capital work better for Africa’s development”.
By transforming road and rail networks into vital economic arteries, Africa is leveraging two of its greatest strengths: its strategic geographical position and its potential to build integrated markets. These corridors not only strengthen national economies, but also unlock the vast natural and agricultural resources that remain under-utilised due to limited market access.
With more than $50 billion invested in infrastructure over the past decade, the Bank has become the leading multilateral funding body within this field in Africa.
Achievements that embody integration in progress
Cross-border infrastructure links, a corner stone of the continental integration policy promoted by the African Development Bank, have advanced significantly since 2015.
One such example is the Trans-Sahara Highway, a giant motorway project stretching from Algiers to Lagos that links the entire Maghreb and Sahel sub-region, over a distance of 9,400 km.
Financed by the African Development Fund, the Bank Group's concessional window, the sections connecting Algiers to Niamey (Niger) are nearing completion, with secondary roads in Tunisia, Mali, and Chad in their final stages. In Niger, the Trans-Sahara Highway has been enthusiastically embraced by travellers and road hauliers eager to transition from old, bumpy surfaces to wide, modern tarmac roads. Journey times have been significantly reduced, unlocking new economic opportunities for local communities. This infrastructure has reinforced Niger’s role as a strategic crossroads between the Maghreb and the Sahel, facilitating connections between Algeria, Nigeria, and Chad.
In addition, the 1,028-kilometre Abidjan-Lagos transnational coastal motorway, which will connect Côte d'Ivoire to Nigeria via Ghana, Togo, and Benin, is set to revolutionize connectivity in West Africa. The project, which has attracted up to $15.6 billion in investment interest from private and institutional partners, is scheduled to commence in 2026 and be completed by 2030. The African Development Bank funded the feasibility studies for the project and developed financing options and institutional frameworks that have paved the way for the construction of this corridor. Once completed, it will link some of West Africa’s most dynamic cities, including Abidjan, Takoradi, Accra, Lomé, Cotonou, Porto-Novo, and Lagos.
The Bamenda-Enugu motorway between Cameroon (Central Africa) and Nigeria (West Africa) is just one example of infrastructure that is already up-and-running and propelling integration. The Sénégambie Bridge, which was opened in January 2019 and which people in Senegal and Gambia have eagerly awaited for 50 years, is another improvement that has transformed the daily lives of millions of Africans. Many Mauritanian and Senegalese citizens, meanwhile, will soon be able to put their travel nightmares behind them due to the construction of the Rosso Bridge, half of which is financed by the Bank to the tune of nearly €41 million. The bridge, which spans the Senegal River, is due to open in 2026.
In Central Africa, the African Development Fund is financing the multimodal transport corridor – specifically, a vital section running from Pointe-Noire to N'Djamena – between the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo.
In East Africa and the Great Lakes region, cross-border corridors, with the support of the Bank, are currently expanding market access and boosting sub-regional and continental integration.
In southern Africa, the Bank's investment in the Mozambique-Beira Corridor is also helping to reduce the cost of transporting goods for Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The Bank has also funded the North-South Corridor to strengthen links in the Great Lakes region and the integration of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which includes the Nacala Corridor. A logistics mega-project, the approximately $2.7 billion Nacala rail and port initiative, linking Mozambique and Malawi, constitutes a strategic regional corridor for the sub-region.
The strategic Lobito Corridor, another multimodal transport project stretching over several thousand kilometres, has been designed to facilitate the transport of minerals and other goods from the resource-rich regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to the port of Lobito, on Angola's Atlantic coast. A vital link in the sub-region's economic development, this corridor will soon become a reality courtesy of co-financing from the Bank and other bilateral and institutional partners.
Between 2004 -2022, the Bank funded the main and connecting sections of seven strategic trade corridors in southern and eastern Africa: Nacala (1,026 km), Mtwara (1,002 km), Central (513 km), North-South (Rwanda to Zambia, 592 km), North (635 km), Mombasa-Addis Ababa (1,275 km) and Namanga (1,647 km), Kenya-South Sudan (201 km), and Madagascar-Indian Ocean (259 km), totalling 7,150 km of roads in the region. The Bank is also advancing regional trade by supporting the East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project and conducting studies for new road developments, particularly along the Central Corridor.
Investments of $13.5 billion
As of 2022, the African Development Bank had funded 25 transport corridors and constructed more than 18,000 km of roads, 27 border crossings and 16 bridges, representing a total of $13.5 billion.
“Regional integration is essential to increase the size of our markets,” said Adesina. “We must integrate Africa and grow and develop together. Our collective destiny is tied to the elimination of the barriers that separate us.”
The Bank will continue to play a crucial role in the development of integration-enhancing road corridors in Africa. Established in 2018, the Africa Investment Forum (AIF), a leading platform for raising finance for bankable projects in Africa, will dedicate a special “boardroom” to regional corridors each year to foster greater collaboration and co-financing, as well as faster development of strategic infrastructure links.
Launched in November 2022 on the side lines of COP 27, the Alliance for Green Infrastructure in Africa (AGIA), spearheaded by the African Development Bank, also represents a powerful lever for inclusive projects, aiming to generate up to $10 billion of investment in green infrastructure on the continent.
Furthermore, the Bank is devoting billions of dollars of investment to the construction of ports and railways right across Africa, linking countries to areas with high agricultural potential or abundant mineral resources. The 411-kilometre railway between Tabora and Kigoma in Tanzania is one such initiative. The project, valued at $2.3 billion, will marry the Tanzanian 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 DRC and Uganda, unlocking regional economic potential by creating new mining and agricultural corridors in East and Central Africa. The Bank is also investing heavily in developing rail lines across the continent.
The Bank will provide $500 million to support the development of the Lobito Corridor, which will link Angola, Zambia and the DRC, in close partnership with the US International Development Finance Corporation and the Africa Finance Corporation.
In partnership with Africa50, it is supporting the construction of a road-rail project linking the Republic of the Congo and the DRC. In 2024, the Board of Directors approved a partial credit guarantee of $696 million to release $3.9 billion for the construction of the Central Corridor Standard Gauge Railway, which will connect Tanzania, Burundi and the DRC.
AfCFTA: world’s second largest integrated market
The crowning achievement of this continental integration strategy, which features on the Bank Group's “High 5” list, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – operational since January 2021 – offers the promise of a common market with 1.5 billion consumers and a combined GDP of around $3.4 trillion.
By 2035, considerable progress will have been made in implementing the AfCFTA, by building on regional economic communities. Cross-border infrastructure links and improved border management – through the reduction of tariff and regulatory barriers – is likely to make commerce between African countries faster and cheaper, with an estimated 52 percent increase in trade.
By the end of 2024, the Bank Group had facilitated over 3,000 business transactions across 170 financial institutions in African countries, with a cumulative commercial value exceeding $12 billion since the launch of its trade finance program. Demonstrating its leadership in standardizing the AfCFTA, the Bank funded the establishment of its permanent secretariat in Accra, Ghana, and continues to enhance its operational and institutional capacities.
In October 2024 in Kigali, a sizeable delegation representing the Bank took part in the AfCFTA Business Forum. At that gathering, Ousmane Fall, Acting Director of the Bank's Industrial and Trade Development Department, reiterated the institution’s support for the continent's 54 countries through a strategy aimed at meeting investment needs in terms of policies and regulations, corridor infrastructure, technology, and connectivity solutions.
