Africa rising: Infrastructure projects to watch

Infrastructure projects to watch. IMAGE/Africa Review

Travelling across Africa, you easily notice a continent working hard for take-off.

Stretches of roads and airport runways under construction, workers digging trenches for underground networking cables and efforts to boost mobile connectivity, even medical services are all signs that the continent is looking ahead.

Here below are some of the larger infrastructural projects that are going on, covering the different sectors of the economy and regions.

1. Itezhi-Tezhi Hydropower Project

The US$250 million Itezhi-Tezhi hydropower and Transition line was first launched in September 2011 by former Zambia President Rupiah Banda. It is expected to be completed later this year.

Once completed, the power plant will boost Zambia’s power supply (currently at 1800 megawatts) and ease country’s erratic power supply. It is also expected to create over 450 jobs.

The project is among Zambia’s first public-private partnerships (between the government and Tata Africa Corporation) in the energy sector and is projected to increase the country’s potential to export electricity.

The project received a boost on December 19, 2012, when Zambia and the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) signed on a loan agreement worth US$55 million for the transmission line project.

Read more: Africa Review