Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country (85 million inhabitants), is negotiating funding worth US $1 billion from the Brazilian Development Bank to build a section of railway that will be extended to connect to neighbouring South Sudan. An agreement in principle has been reached between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Construction of the 439 km line section will be undertaken by Brazilian contractor Andrade Gutierrez Participacoes SA. Brazil joins China and Turkey in co-financing Ethiopia’s railway plan to build 4,744 km of lines, at a cost 110.8 billion birr (US $5.9 billion). By facilitating passenger mobility and reducing logistics costs, Ethiopia hopes to trigger an economic boom which would further strengthen the average growth of 8.7% over the past five years.

(Source: Ecofin Agency)