Africa Finance Corp to sign $320m deal with Italy to bolster Lobito funding

Source: Reuters.

AFC, which is owned by African central banks and development lenders, is the financing partner for the United States-backed rail and road corridor linking the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic coastline with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the minerals are mined.

"The government of Italy has continued to express their support for the project. There will be a signing event of the facility that they are going to advance for the project," Samaila Zubairu noted in an interview after the launch of the financier's annual Africa infrastructure report.

There will also be a meeting in Rome focusing on the Lobito corridor project as it is known, in the coming weeks, he added.

The Lobito rail corridor is a project to help transport critical minerals from the central African copperbelt to the West and is considered key in countering Chinese control over copper and cobalt supplies in the region.

Some of the cash from the Italian government will go towards AFC's regular lending operations, he said, without giving a precise split.

AFC, which usually aims to raise $2-3bn every year, has raised more than $1bn this year so far, and it is looking to raise roughly $1bn more via a syndication facility soon, Zubairu said.

"We have a huge syndication that we are launching shortly," he said, without providing more information.