Africa’s biggest projects are delivering the infrastructure needed to attract the kind of investment in the manufacturing and mining sectors that will drive demand for project management services.Rail projects on the list of top developments include a 969-kilometre line from the Kenyan Port of Mombasa to Malaba, Uganda, a countrywide rail network in Nigeria, and a West African project. The Nigerian government is connecting the country’s main centres by rail, and to extend into neighbouring Niger. Speaking at the virtual ground-breaking ceremony for a line which will traverse the major commercial and administrative centre of Kano and pass through other economic hubs of Nigeria, including Kazaure, Daura, Katsina and up to the border town of Jibiya and the Niger Republic city of Maradi, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari said the vital line would establish an end-to-end logistic supply chain in railway transport services between northern and southern regions of the country, reaching Nigerian southern ports of Lagos and Warri.This will complement an eastern corridor which will join Port Harcourt with the cities of Enugu, Makurdi and Maiduguri with an upgraded rail line with branches to Owerri, Imo state and Damaturu, Yobe state.The project included a deep-sea port in Bonny Island and a railway industrial park in Port Harcourt, with the objective of achieving a vibrant and functional railway infrastructure in the eastern part of the country, said the president.A contract for a central line traversing Itakpe-Baro-Abuja with connection to Lokoja and a new seaport in Warri had also been signed, he said. Kenya is building a 969km standard gauge railway from Mombasa to Malaba at a cost of $9.9 billion. This has been billed as one of the largest and most ambitious transport infrastructure projects in Africa.Phase one of the project, a 472km stretch from Mombasa to Nairobi, has been completed at a cost of $3.27bn while phase 2A from Nairobi to Naivasha (120km) was constructed at a cost of $1.5bn.In May, the Ugandan parliament approved plans to borrow $327.01m to refurbish the existing line from the Ugandan capital to the Kenyan border.West African and mining companies in the region are investing in a massive rail project. When completed, it will be 3 000km long and link Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. Mineral exports are a major economic driver of West Africa, with predictions that they will steadily rise from 109 000 tons a year to 3.4 million by 2030. Dams and their accompanying hydroelectric projects are also among the top projects in Africa. The Mambila Hydroelectric Power Project in Nigeria is one of the biggest construction projects in Africa, and is being undertaken by China’s Sinohydro Corp at a cost of $5.8 billion. Ethiopia is building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River. Work on the 6 000-MW dam began in 2011 and is now 70% complete.
