By Daniel Itai.
South Africa. (News of The South) – The African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) and South African based railway company Thelo DB, yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop, finance and operate railway projects in Africa at the ongoing Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg South Africa.
Afreximbank and Thelo DB will collaborate to support the modernisation of the continent’s railways as a catalyst in promoting trade, investment and economic skills development, recognising the urgent need for implementation of efficient and effective transportation and logistics solution in Africa, with particular emphasis on the freight railway sector.
President of Afreximbank Benedict Oramah described the event as timely, given that the continent was in the process of operationalising the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement.
Ronnie Ntuli, Chairman of the Board of Thelo DB, welcomed the opportunity to work with Afreximbank.
“Through this critically important relationship, we are able to offer to the continent, not only the best technical solutions for the railway sector but also introduce financing solutions to finance railway projects across the continent.
“The MoU solves a very important part of the puzzle for us. Rather than building our own expertise as Thelo DB, working in an integrated manner with Afreximbank magically gives us a solution to that challenge. So we can now sit down with our clients and say not only do we bring technical capacity of a global standard, we bring you unbelievable capital mobilisation,” said Ntuli.
African governments have long been discussing the importance of the regional integration of infrastructure projects as one of the ways to both free and speed up the movement of goods in order to stimulate intra-Africa trade.
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