Zimbabwe Secures Funding to Upgrade Key Copperbelt Trade Gateway

Image: Aerial view of Victoria falls, Zambia. Stock image.

Zimbabwe has secured a funding agreement to upgrade the Chirundu border crossing with Zambia, a key transport gateway linking the Central African Copperbelt with major ports in southern Africa.

The agreement between the Zimbabwean government and private-sector partners, known as the Chirundu Border Consortium, clears the way for construction work at the border post, according to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development.

The Chirundu border forms part of the North-South Corridor and handles significant freight movements between the Zambia-DRC Copperbelt and ports in South Africa and Mozambique. The crossing was inaugurated in 2009 as Africa’s first one-stop border post.

For the mining industry, the route is particularly important because freight moving through Chirundu includes copper, cobalt, mining equipment, fuel, processing reagents and other supplies required by mining operations. Congestion and lengthy truck delays at the border have, however, created logistical challenges for companies operating along the regional mining supply chain.

The planned modernisation is expected to replace ageing infrastructure and introduce improved operational and cargo-processing systems designed to reduce congestion and speed up the movement of goods.

The government has not disclosed the final investment value of the project. Zimbabwean Cabinet previously indicated that the upgrade could cost about $66.8 million, with private investors expected to operate the facility under a 20-year concession.

Safaga International, which led the $300 million redevelopment of Zimbabwe’s Beitbridge border with South Africa, is leading the Chirundu project. South Africa’s Strategic Partners Group is also participating as a strategic investor.

Standard Bank has been appointed lead debt arranger and senior lender for the project.

The upgrade comes as southern Africa seeks to improve transport infrastructure supporting the movement of minerals and other commodities between landlocked mining economies and international markets.

For Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, more efficient transit through Chirundu could help improve the reliability of supply chains serving the Copperbelt, while Zimbabwe stands to strengthen its role as a regional logistics link between central and southern Africa.

As copper, cobalt and other critical minerals remain central to regional mining investment and global energy-transition supply chains, improving border infrastructure is increasingly important to the movement of both mineral exports and the equipment and inputs needed to produce them.