Kenya-Uganda-Rwanda seek USD 13.5bn for joint railway.
The governments of Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda will seek USD 13.5bn in a joint cash mobilization venture by the three East African states to finance a dual truck, 2,937km high capacity Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). The expected cost is split into USD 11.5bn for infrastructure and USD 2bn for Rolling stock. Every country will bear the burden of repayment for its portion of the loan. The average cost for the project is USD 3.9m per km. The completion of the rail will be completed in 2018. While Kenya introduced a levy of 1.5% on imported goods, that is only expected to raise a paltry USD 250m per year so the rest would have to be sourced by debt. The Kenyan portion for the Mombasa-Malaba/Kisumu is 1,300km and likely to cost close to USD 5.1bn, by our estimates. The SGR will allow freight trains to go upto speed of 120 Kph while passenger trains will attain 180 Kph. The tripartite meeting by the governments expressed dissatisfied with the way RVR has been handling the Kenya-Uganda railway with cargo traffic having reduced since the concession. RVR, whose main shareholders includes Egypt’s Citadel and listed TransCentury (34%) have alluded that amounts to be invested rose due to unforeseen circumstances and that the network had been dilapidated due to years of neglect. Kenya is also planning to construct a 1,400km Lamu-Lokichogio railway and the Nairobi-Moyale 700km rail which will connect Kenya to Juba in South Sudan as part of the Lamu Port- South Sudan- Ethiopia transport corridor. (KTN, Standard Investment Bank)