Niger’s First Rail Service to be Built Next Year

A railway line between Niger’s capital Niamey and the commercial hub of Abidjan in Ivory Coast is scheduled to be built from next year. This will be Niger’s first ever railway.

It is believed to be part funded by the EU and a Manganese billionaire from Romania called Frank Timis. The service will run through Tambao in Burkina Faso, which like Nigeria is also landlocked.

Linking the two countries to a major port will fuel trade throughout the region, and bring investment to Niger which is one of the world’s poorest countries. It is not clear however whether such a rail service will transport anything other than minerals across the countries.

Residents in Niger complain that it can take several hours to travel 100km on their terrible roads, but worry that the rail service might not help the people themselves. A Pan-African rail network has been mooted since the 1950′s, but has not yet come to fruit. Time will tell if it benefits residents of the region as well as companies that exploit their resources.