DRC: Tripartite ministerial meeting on the railway project within the Central Corridor

Gathered in Kinshasa in a ministerial tripartite meeting made of Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo on the “Uvinza – Gitega – Bujumbura – Uvira – Kindu standard gauge electrified railway project” on Saturday August 20, 2022, several resolutions were adopted with technical support from CCTTFA, the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency.

After a closed-door meeting, 3 agreements were approved and signed by the relevant ministers. They are :

The bilateral financing agreement between the DRC and Burundi for the implementation of the electrified standard gauge railway project on the Gitega – Bujumbura – Uvira – Kindu section signed between O’ Neige N’sele Mimpa, Deputy Finance Minister for the DRC, and Domitian Ndihokubwayo, Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning for Burundi;
The joint request to be addressed to the African Development Bank, AfDB, for the financing of feasibility and engineering studies for the electrified standard gauge railway project on the Gitega – Bujumbura – Uvira – Kindu section signed between O’ Neige N’sele Mimpa, Deputy Finance Minister for the DRC, and Domitian Ndihokubwayo, Minister of Finance, Budget and Planning for Burundi
The signing of the Works Manual for the implementation of the Uvinza – Musongati – Gitega railway project signed between Chantal Nijimbire, Burundian Minister of Transport and His Excellency Saïd Juma Mshana, Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Tanzania in the DRC representing his impeded minister.

The host of this meeting, the Congolese Minister of transport, communication routes and opening up of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chérubin Okende, in his capacity as president of the ministers’ council meetings, paid tribute to the Head of State, promoter of the project in the DRC, in favor of peace and fraternity. Tribute to the Prime Minister, Sama Lukonde while thanking his finance counterpart, Nicolas Kazadi for his commitment to resource mobilization. He praised the leadership of Senior counsel Flory Okandju Okonge, Executive Secretary of the AFTTCC for his coordination of the said project. And added,

The government of the DRC attaches its capital importance to the materialization of this integrative railway construction project, from Uvinza in Tanzania, Musongati-Gitega in Burundi and which will be connected to Uvira, Mwenga, Kalungu, Kamituga, Pangi to Kindu in the DRC. This project aims to open up about twenty territories of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and reduces the price of transport and facilitates the transport of people who sell goods.
Chérubin Okende | Min Trans DRC

Mrs. Chantal Nijimbire, Minister of Transport of Burundi thanked her host and welcomed the progress of the project in this regard,

Despite the delays that occurred independently of our own will, the invitation to tender for the recruitment of the construction company for the Uvinza – Musongati – Gitega section has already been published, as regards the joint financing agreement for the feasibility studies on the Gitega – Kindu section significant progress has been made towards the joint mobilization of financing from the African Development Bank.
Chantal Nijimbire | Min Trans Burundi

For his part, the Executive Secretary of the AFTTCC, Mr. Flory Okandju Okonge reports,

Their Excellencies, the ministers welcomed the fruitful exchanges that took place during the mission to prepare the joint request to the AfDB, which brought together the 3 countries in August 2022 as part of the support mechanism for the implementation of the Uvinza-Musongati-Gitega-Kindu Standard Gauge Electrified Railway. They have undertaken to finalize the signature of the related memorandum within two (2) weeks. My Excellencies, the ministers of the delegation of the Republic of Burundi, and the United Republic of Tanzania thanked their host His Excellency Chérubin Okenge for his invitation and expressed greatfulness to their host on the results obtained during their stay in Kinshasa. All Ministers thanked the Central Corridor Transit Transport Facilitation Agency, CCTTFA.

Counsel Flory Okandju | Exec Sec CCTTFA