Time to open rail to private participation – Zimbabwe rail CEO

The African railway market needs the private sector if it wants to address its infrastructure challenges, said Mike Karakadzai, CEO of the National Railways of Zimbabwe. “Maintaining Sub- Saharan Africa’s existing rail infrastructure has been problematic enough from a resources point of view without even looking at investing in new infrastructure. In Africa we have competing needs and transport is not necessarily at the top of government agendas where people are living without basic services.” With the need for the complete refurbishment of rail having been identified along with the creation of more capacity, the time has come to open the market to more role-players, said Karakadzai. “We definitely need more players in the railway market to bring about the changes we want and need. Obviously it follows that if you do that you also need a regulator to put clear rules in place for operators to observe. With them paying access fees it will take away the big burden on public financing that is not always forthcoming.” A major concern is that private operators will outperform existing state operators who are all working with old rolling stock. “The new private players will come with rolling stock that is much better than what we currently have. The states therefore have to first find the funds to modernise their own rolling stock before opening them up to competition.” Norbert Lubanda, CEO of the Congo National Railways in the DRC, said governments were also obliged to provide common freight such as food to people while private business will always be more inclined to head for the profitable mining commodities. “We would have to ensure there are reasonable balances in place.”