Rwanda has agreed to partner with Kenya alongside Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to extend the railway network. This was announced following the signing of a joint communique on Friday, May 3. The move will see the Standard gauge railway (SGR) extend from Kenya before being developed all through to Uganda and eventually to Rwanda. As part of the working framework, the five countries will also be seeking to source funds for the development of the vast SGR line. “This historic move seeks to enable joint resource mobilisation, expedite the completion of the construction of the remaining SGR sections from Naivasha in Kenya to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC, and develop a roadmap that will fast-track its implementation,” Kipchumba Murkomen, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport, said in an X post. The communique to extend the SGR was signed by ministers of transport and infrastructure at the Meetings of the Northern Corridor Integration Projects (NCIP) in Nairobi, Kenya. The NCIP is a multilateral development initiative established in 2013 to speed up growth in the region through improvement of infrastructure for ease of movement of people, goods and services. “The meeting, further, sought to harmonise the planning and development of inland water transport infrastructure in order to provide seamless multimodal transport services and speed up the review of the Tripartite Agreement on water transport on Lake Victoria,” Murkomen noted. As per the signed agreement, the five countries will finalise the contracts by the end of this month. “As a country, we seek to leverage private sector partnerships in the extension of our SGR line in an effort to, not only ensure seamless cross-border movement of goods and people, but also create special economic zones along the corridor that will transform areas with stop stations into economic hubs,” he said.
