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China, Zambia, and Tanzania have signed a landmark USD 1.4 billion trilateral agreement to modernise the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), a critical transport corridor in Southern and Central Africa. Officially announced by the Zambian government, the agreement aims to rehabilitate the aging railway—originally built nearly 50 years ago with Chinese assistance—and acquire new rolling stock, including locomotives, passenger coaches, and wagons.
This initiative builds on a memorandum of understanding signed in 2024 and reinforces China’s long-term infrastructure partnership in Africa. The investment targets decades of underfunding and operational challenges that have diminished TAZARA’s effectiveness as a vital export route, especially for copper and cobalt from Zambia and the broader Great Lakes region. With global demand for critical minerals surging, the railway’s revitalisation is seen as strategically essential to integrating Africa into international supply chains.
TAZARA connects Zambia’s Copperbelt with the port of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, offering landlocked nations such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) alternative maritime access, independent of Southern Africa’s traditional logistics routes. With ongoing bottlenecks in South African transport infrastructure, the upgraded TAZARA line is poised to strengthen regional integration within the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The agreement comes amid heightened international interest in Africa’s mineral corridors. The U.S., along with the EU and African Development Bank, is backing the competing Lobito Corridor project, linking Angola’s Lobito Port with Zambia and the DRC. Yet, analysts suggest these projects need not be rivals; instead, a diversified network of logistics corridors can bolster Africa’s industrial ambitions by reducing overreliance on any single route.
While a specific timeline for completion has yet to be disclosed, the funding will support track rehabilitation, signal upgrades, technical improvements, and workforce development. China’s involvement in African railway projects is well-established—from Ethiopia to Kenya and Nigeria—but TAZARA holds unique historical significance. Completed in 1975, the railway was both a symbol of post-colonial solidarity and a practical solution for bypassing apartheid-era trade barriers.
Today, the re-engagement with TAZARA reflects a broader shift in China-Africa relations—from symbolic infrastructure diplomacy to pragmatic, commercially driven cooperation. Zambia’s Transport Minister Frank Tayali described the project as “transformative,” stating it will unlock the country’s full mineral export potential and lower costs for exporters.
Pan-African experts emphasize that while foreign investment remains important, the success of such infrastructure projects hinges on strong intra-African coordination in policy, regulation, and economic strategy. Both Tanzania and Zambia have pledged to enhance TAZARA’s operational independence and financial viability, aligning with the African Union’s goals under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
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Importantly, the TAZARA upgrade supports broader ambitions to grow regional industrial value chains, enabling African economies to process and benefit from their own resources. By improving multi-modal transport networks and attracting industrial investment along the corridor, the project could spur economic diversification beyond raw mineral exports.
Whether this renewed focus and funding will translate into long-term, community-level benefits remains uncertain. However, by moving beyond donor-driven models and centering African agency, the TAZARA revitalisation offers a meaningful step toward a more self-determined and strategically integrated model of development across the continent.