Market News

HARARE, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s government on Tuesday announced a funding agreement for the upgrade of the Chirundu border with Zambia, to reduce delays on a vital gateway connecting the central African copperbelt to southern African ports.

• The deal between Zimbabwe and its private sector partners, the Chirundu Border Consortium, clears the path to construction work, the country’s transport and infrastructure development ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
• The Chirundu border, inaugurated as Africa’s first one-stop border post in 2009, is a key gateway on the North-South Corridor, handling freight between ports in South Africa and Mozambique and the Zambia-DRC Copperbelt.
• Traffic through the crossing includes copper, cobalt, fuel, mining equipment, reagents, fertilizers and other traded goods, with trucks often facing bottlenecks and lengthy delays.
• The border modernisation project will overhaul old infrastructure, introduce advanced operational and processing systems to reduce delays and congestion at one of Africa’s busiest transit points, the ministry said.
• The ministry did not disclose the final investment for the public-private partnership project, but Zimbabwe’s Cabinet has previously said the project would cost $66.8 million and be operated by private investors for 20 years under a concession agreement.
• Safaga International, which led the $300 million upgrade of Zimbabwe’s Beitbridge border with South Africa, is leading the Chirundu border project. South Africa’s Strategic Partners Group is also a strategic investor in the project.
• Standard Bank is the lead debt arranger and senior lender.