Africa’s surprising new age of rail

The story of west Africa’s most famous railway is a cautionary one for governments across the continent. Africa’s entire rail network is today only slightly larger than France’s and Germany’s combined. In west Africa only one cross-border line is still working. By one estimate, investments of up to $105bn a year until 2050 are needed if Africa’s network density is to match China’s or India’s. Yet between 2012 and 2022 total private investment in rail infrastructure was no more than $6bn, according to the World Bank. That was roughly the same as in the previous decade, despite a surge in infrastructure investment from China. Where Western firms have occasionally shown interest, grand promises have usually remained on paper.