Zambia has officially joined the Central Corridor linking landlocked countries to the Indian Ocean through Tanzania, extending the corridor’s reach south beyond the East African Community (EAC) bloc.
Zambia’s Minister of Transport and Logistics, Frank Museba Tayali, signed a formal agreement confirming full membership on October 8 during a Council of Ministers meeting of the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency (CCTTFA) member countries in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The CCTTFA member States are Tanzania, which hosts the corridor’s sole sea outlet at the port of Dar es Salaam, DR Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Malawi, which is the only other non-EAC member.
The Kinshasa meeting was attended physically by the transport ministers of the hosts, DR Congo, Zambia and Malawi, and virtually by the other four countries.
According to CCTTFA, the latest development will enhance the agency’s mission to strengthen economic activities along the corridor by simplifying customs procedures, reducing transit times and lowering transport costs.
“The inclusion of Zambia is expected to further strengthen the Central Corridor’s position as a preferred trade route for regional and international commerce,” the agency said in a statement.
It added that the pact would allow Lusaka to formally integrate its transport infrastructure with the corridor, paving the way for enhanced trade flows and economic development through the region.
Zambia is already closely linked with Tanzania through the Tazara railway from Dar es Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi, and to the DR Congo through the Copperbelt line.
The country’s decision to become a fully-fledged member of CCTTFA could also have wider implications for the success of the envisaged Lobido Corridor railway project, which will traverse the southern part of the continent from Angola to Tanzania.
With the United States already committed to providing initial construction funding, preliminary plans for the Lobido Corridor rail route, linking the Atlantic and Indian oceans, indicate that it will also pass through both the DRC and Zambia.
Should the corridor eventually link up with the Chinese-built Tazara, a likelihood that already raises questions about future US-China synergy on the whole project.
The Central Corridor and its counterpart, the Northern Corridor, which runs from the Kenyan port of Mombasa through Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DRC, are considered vital components in promoting economic growth across the eastern Africa region.
The CCTTFA was established in 2006 as an integrated multimodal transport and logistics network to support coordinated efforts by its member states to ease and streamline transit trade between them.
At the same CCTTFA high-level meeting in Kinshasa last week, DR Congo and Malawi also signed a bilateral air services agreement (Basa) to enhance connectivity between the two countries.
The agency also launched a new systems integration for data exchange with DR Congo’s General Directorate of Customs and Excise (DGDA) to improve data collection efficiency by reducing costs and streamlining the monitoring of transit traffic.
It said the integration would improve the performance of its transport observatory, which monitors key performance indicators such as transit times, freight volumes, efficiency and productivity.
“The integration is expected to facilitate the seamless flow of cargo through transit countries, improving trade operations across the region,” the CCTTFA said.
