Africa needs $20bn yearly to fix rail sector – Afreximbank

…Signs MoU on rail devt with Russian Railways, REC
The President of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Prof. Benedict Oramah, has said that Africa requires $20 billion investment annually to develop its rail sector at par with the leading economies.

Prof. Oramah said this on Friday in Moscow when he signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russian Railways and the Russian Export Center (REC) to implement export and investment projects in the railway sector in Africa.

Afreximbank’s Director of Communications and Marketing, Mr. Obi Emekekwue, stated that under the terms of the MoU, the parties will cooperate by undertaking mutual consultations on export and investment projects in the railway sector abroad and by jointly developing project financing schemes in the sector.

Oramah signed the document on behalf of the Bank while Oleg Belozyorov, Director General of Russian Railways, and Andrey Slepnev, Director General of REC, signed for their respective organisations.

The Afreximbank’s President cited the huge demand for infrastructure in Africa and said that the continent needed investments of $20 billion per annum in the rail sector in order to bring it up to required level.

He said that Afreximbank’s role is to find partners that would help it to deliver the necessary investment in Africa.

The signing of the MoU would enable Russia to begin to participate in the opportunities that exist in Africa, he added.

Mr. Slepnev described the signing of the MoU as demonstration of practical collaboration among the institutions and expressed confidence that it would bear fruit.

Russian Railways is reputed for developing and advancing technologies and techniques for effectively managing railway systems.

Afreximbank is an African financial institution, headquartered in Cairo, Egypt, whose primary objective is to promote and finance trade within the African continent and trade between Africa and other continents.