The Lobito Corridor has just secured a historic funding of $753 million for its modernization and rehabilitation, consolidating its position as one of Africa's most strategic railway infrastructure projects.

This decisive milestone was reached with the signing of an agreement in Washington between the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA), and the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR), which includes Mota-Engil, the concessionaire responsible for operating the railway line.

Of the total amount, $553 million is secured by the DFC and $200 million by the DBSA, in a transaction that simultaneously represents the first transaction between Angola and the DFC and the largest financing ever granted by this US institution in Africa in the railway sector.

For the Angolan government, this is an unequivocal sign of international confidence in the country's ability to structure and execute highly complex projects with high standards of governance, transparency, and technical rigor.

The funding will enable the rehabilitation and modernization of approximately 1.300 kilometers of railway line, connecting the Lobito Port Terminal to the town of Luau, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The investment also includes workshops, signaling systems, rolling stock and new locomotives, significantly reinforcing the capacity, efficiency and reliability of the logistics corridor.

According to the Minister of Transport, Ricardo Viegas D'Abreu, the Lobito Corridor positions Angola as a pillar of stability and regional integration, transforming the country into a logistics and export platform of strategic relevance to the world's largest economies.

The corridor allows for a direct link between the Copperbelt mining region in the DRC and Zambia and international markets via the Atlantic Ocean, playing a central role in the diversification and resilience of global supply chains.

The DFC highlights Central Africa's wealth of strategic resources, vital to global industries such as technology and defense, which gives the Lobito Corridor added geopolitical value.

For Angola, this funding not only consolidates the project as a structuring axis for economic development, but also reinforces the regional integration of Southern Africa and its global economic connectivity.