AfDB offers Uganda $301 million to fund upgrade of rail network

The African Development Bank said it is providing $301 million to Uganda to help it upgrade the colonial-era meter-gauge rail linking its capital to the Kenyan border to help cut transport costs.

The financing consists of loans and grants from the bank as well as from its African Development Fund, the concessional lending window, the Abidjan, Ivory Coast-based lender said in an email statement.

Works will entail rehabilitation of 265 kilometers (164 miles) of the track, which is part of the East African Community’s Northern Corridor and connects to Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa, the lender said.

Uganda, which heavily relies on expensive road transport for its exports and imports mainly through Kenya, is focusing on rehabilitation of the rail built under the British rule following delays in raising loans from China to build a modern standard gauge rail.