Zambian Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Minister Charles Lubasi Milupi, himself an engineer, has highlighted the importance of infrastructure development for his country and for the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He was speaking at the Infrastructure Africa 2024 Conference, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, on Tuesday.

“What is it that Africa wants to do? That SADC wants to do? That our countries want to do?” he queried, rhetorically. “It is to better the lives of our people. That’s where infrastructure comes in.”

Africans, he affirmed, had to make things work for themselves. In Zambia, the desire was for growth that would benefit the population. Sustained economic growth would lift the Zambian people out of poverty. But, to achieve that growth, the country’s economic sectors had to perform. For Zambia, the key economic sectors were mining, agriculture, tourism and manufacturing. And infrastructure’s role was to enable these sectors to perform.

(Zambia is a landlocked country in the north-central part of the SADC region. Its neighbours are Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia.)

Milupi highlighted that Zambia needed infrastructure that linked the country together and that linked it with its external markets. An example was the redevelopment of the Lobito Corridor, which would link Zambia to the South Atlantic harbour city of Lobito, in Angola. Another example was the Nacala Corridor, which would link Zambia to the Indian Ocean Port of Nacala, in Mozambique, via Malawi.

He observed that SADC countries had to look at their railway infrastructure, to link them together. He noted that Kenya and Tanzania were switching to global Standard Gauge (1.435 m) railways, away from their original metre gauge systems. SADC countries used the Cape Gauge (1.067 m).

A problem for African countries, when it came to infrastructure development, was that capital was only available at “extortionate” rates. He attributed this situation to the global ratings agencies.

Further, Zambia and the other African countries needed access to technology.

How to overcome these challenges, and benefit the Zambian people? Through joint ventures, he affirmed. “We have decided to liberate the private sector in Zambia!” The country had established, and continued to establish, many public-private partnerships (PPPs).