Biden unveils $600 million in new financing for African railway

Skylar Woodhouse and Mario Parker, Bloomberg News on Dec 4, 2024

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President Joe Biden is rounding off his trip to Angola by announcing $600 million in new financing for a multi-country railway as the U.S. looks to bolster its investment in critical minerals infrastructure in Africa and curb Chinese influence.

Today’s announcement builds on $553 million the U.S. International Development Finance Corp pledged earlier this year in the Lobito Trans-Africa Corridor, connecting the Central African copperbelt to the Angolan coast. The new investments will support not just the rail infrastructure but also agriculture, clean energy and associated supply chains, along with health and digital access in the country, according to the White House.

“The United States understands how we invest in Africa is just as important as how much we invest in Africa,” Biden said in Lobito, a port city on Angola’s Atlantic coast. “To help Africa lead the way. We need more capital, more infrastructure to deal with these real solutions. That’s why we’re here today.”

Biden, whose nickname is Amtrak Joe, during a speech in the capital, Luanda, on Tuesday joked that he is the most “pro-rail guy” in the U.S. He’s used the trip to highlight the importance of the Lobito project, a railway being revamped with the aim of expediting the shipment of critical minerals including cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia for technology including electric vehicles.

While in Lobito, Biden toured the port and met with companies investing in the project, including SunAfrica, U.S.-owned mobile network Africell and Acrow Bridge, a Pennsylvania-based infrastructure company. Biden also met with African leaders including Angolan President João Lourenço, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Tanzanian Vice President Philip Isdor Mpango.

Biden’s trip comes as the U.S. belatedly tries to play catchup with China, which has spent decades building influence on the continent — largely through tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure lending — and now dominates the region’s mining sector.

Angola has been among Beijing’s biggest borrowers, but since his election in 2017, Lourenço has sought to reduce its dependence on China. Still, Angola’s oil industry — which accounts for about 90% of the country’s export revenue — sells more than half its output to China.

The U.S. has provided $2.9 billion in financing in Angola for its energy, infrastructure and telecommunications sectors, according to the White House. Biden, with less than 50 days left in office, has drawn a link between the investment in infrastructure in Africa and Angola to his landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Biden promised to visit the continent after hosting a 2022 summit with African leaders in Washington. His trip has been overshadowed by his late Sunday evening announcement that he would pardon his son, Hunter Biden, and last month’s election of Donald Trump.