The Africa Finance Corp. intends calling for bids from companies to build a new railway connection between Zambia’s copper-rich region and an existing line that runs to the Angolan port of Lobito in coming months.

The tender will be split into three parts, Samaila Zubairu, the lender’s president, said in an interview in Washington this week. Groundbreaking is set for next year, and contracts will be awarded to build rail links in Angola and Zambia, and provide rolling stock and systems, he said.

The Zambian link to Lobito will be the first major railway built in the nation since China financed and helped construct the Tanzania-Zambia line in the 1970s.

The project is unfolding amid intensifying geopolitical competition for access to Africa’s critical minerals. While Washington has backed the Lobito link, China is undertaking a $1.4 billion overhaul of the Tazara line.

The so-called Lobito Corridor project will help ensure that growing copper output from Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be able to reach global markets, while creating local jobs in industries such as agriculture that stand to benefit from improved infrastructure.

Africa’s young population is becoming increasingly impatient with a lack of opportunities, and the continent is in a race to create employment, Zubairu said.

“The globe needs to understand that it is in their best interest to work with us to create jobs,” he said. “Because 400 million people without jobs is not just a risk to Africa, it is a risk to the world.”

(By Matthew Hill)