The feasibility study for an 800-kilometre greenfield railway, designed to extend the existing Lobito railway from northern Zambia to eastern Angola, is nearing completion.

Commissioned at a cost of $10 million, this study follows a seven-party Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in October 2023 by the United States, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the European Union (EU), Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Zambia advance the Lobito Corridor project.

“Feasibility is well underway,” stated Helaina R. Matza, Acting Special Coordinator, Office of the U.S. Special Coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI), during a digital press briefing on the Lobito Corridor on Wednesday.

"From the announcement to the feasibility beginning and now almost completed, we’ll have a much better sense of everything that we need to do to help start closing any viability gaps as we’re identifying them,” she added.

The Zambia-Lobito railway represents Phase 2 of the Lobito Corridor initiative. Phase 1, which has been operational since January 2024, involved the upgrade of a 1,300-km railway line linking the Port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast to the DRC. This phase was executed by the Lobito Atlantic Railway (LAR) consortium under a 30-year concession.

During the briefing, Matza highlighted several funding commitments for the project, including $500 million from the AfDB, $320 million from Italy, as the host of the G7 Summit, and an additional $250 million from the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to support AFC’s efforts. “We are starting to bring together other lenders and supporters, and exploring ways to potentially pre-book capacity on this rail to make the deal as commercial as it can be, with the support it requires to get over the finish line,” she said.

Upon the completion of the feasibility study, further fundraising efforts may be initiated, focusing on equity and project debt, Matza added. She had previously indicated in press briefings that the goal is to complete the greenfield railway, estimated to cost over $1 billion, within five years.

The Lobito Corridor is the first strategic economic corridor under the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGI) initiative, launched by President Biden at the G7 Summit in Japan in May 2023.