NRZ seeks to maximise north-south corridor gains

THE National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has embarked on a regional offensive to unlock business potential in southern and eastern African countries through full exploitation of the north-south corridor.

Following an invitation by the National Rail Company of Congo, the NRZ delegation led by board chairman, Advocate Martin Dinha, is in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to seek synergies to increase the movement of people and goods in the Sadc region.

“DRC and Zimbabwe enjoy strong bilateral ties so it is also critical that we strengthen economic ties. We were invited here to discuss the smooth operations of the North-South Corridor,” said Adv Dinha in response to questions from Business Chronicle.

“We want to ensure smooth movement of freight in this important corridor. We also had an opportunity to discuss with the industrialists and mining associations in this region.”

He said his team had agreed to mutualise the utilisation of resources so that they are able to offer seamless services to their customers.

Adv Dinha noted that DRC, by being a source market for minerals, presents a huge opportunity for NRZ to generate the much-needed foreign currency to buy locomotives spares, new rolling stock and tractive power to enhance its business.

“As you know we have been in Turkey to source investment in the railways infrastructure but we also need to solve the regional challenges facing the railways sector so that as investment comes in there are no bottlenecks on our corridor,” he said.

Following the visit to Turkey last month, NRZ signed an investment memorandum of understanding between the parastatal and a Turkish construction company, Yappe Merkez. The deal is expected to enable the NRZ to buy locomotives and wagons as well as the construction of the Lions Den-Kafuwe Railway line, which will be a short transit route to Zambia.

The north-south rail corridor consists of a rail network that stretches over 3 000km from Durban in South Africa through Zimbabwe and Botswana and links to DRC passing through Zambia. It is Sadc’s main international rail gateway for transporting inbound and outbound cargo.

Despite the menace of the Covid-19 pandemic, Adv Dinha said: “We were authorised by His Excellency the President to travel during these scary Covid times because railway transportation is an essential service.

“Some of the opportunities we are pursuing can’t wait and NRZ must come back to full life, thus we have to take the sacrifice and work.

Covid-19 has put our plans way back as we race to meet set targets.”

Experts believe Africa’s growth, development and success hinges on connecting with each other and thus the north-south rail corridor is an example of Africa’s integration and what can be achieved through co-operation.

NRZ is part of the broader strategy to ensure smooth movement of goods within the Sadc region, which emphasises the need to invest more in rail infrastructure rehabilitation. —ebusinessweekly.cl.zw