VenturesNow

Turkish company chosen by Uganda for Malaba-Kampala SGR

Published

4 months ago

August 2, 2024

Before the year ends, work is expected to start on the much anticipated multibillion-dollar Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which would run from the Kenyan-Ugandan border at Malaba to Kampala.

The project coordinator, Mr Perez Wamburu, announced that M/s Yapi Merkezi, a Turkish contractor, will now be building the Malaba-Kampala (eastern route).

The amount of money that the Turkish corporation is investing in the project is unknown. After eight years of non-delivery, Kampala terminated the deal early last year, despite the Chinese having agreed to invest over $2.2 billion.

“We are at the tail end of the procurement of Yapi Merkezi. We have discussed the costs and we are at the bottom line of agreeing that we shall have the contract after it has been approved by the Attorney-General. We hope to start before the end of this year,” Mr Wamburu told the media during a briefing at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala. “We have done due diligence on this company and we have seen what they have done in Tanzania.”

This development occurs nine years after the project’s inception in Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, and other partner states of the East African Community. The project’s goal is to lower the high transportation expenses brought on by cargo delays.

According to Mr. Wamburu, the initiative would soon be submitted for review by the Ministry of Finance.

Speaking at the same function, Mr. Godfrey Kabyanga, the Minister of State for ICT and National Guidance, disclosed the reasons behind the first Chinese contractor’s failure, citing unfavourable circumstances.

To finance the building of the Malaba-Kampala SGR line, Uganda first approached China Exim Bank.

“Their conditions were not favourable to us but we’ve gone with the Turkish firm. They are more favourable and we are going to work with them,” Mr Kabyanga said. “The development of the SGR is on and work will commence as soon as the financing arrangements are sorted so Ugandans should not be sceptical,” he added.

Kenya and Uganda set out to design an SGR system that would connect Mombasa, Nairobi, and Kisumu to Kampala.

According to Mr. Kabyanga, the Ministry of Works submitted a report on the status of the SGR project in Uganda to the Cabinet during its Monday meeting.

The 1,500-kilometer railway project also aims to create a modern, high-capacity network that will speed up transit, make it easier for people and goods to move around, and encourage economic growth by establishing seamless connectivity between Uganda and its neighbouring nations.

To connect the member states and increase trade in the more than 300 million-person region, the presidents of South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda started building the SGR in 2013.

Only Tanzania and Kenya have seen notable advancements in their national construction lines thus far. The planned 332-kilometer Malaba-Kampala stretch will be constructed.

VenturesNow

Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.

VenturesNow

Dangote refinery begins petroleum sales to West Africa

Published

1 day ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

In an indication to traders that the activities of its mega-refinery might soon disrupt regional fuel markets, Nigeria’s private Dangote Petroleum Refinery has started exporting refined petroleum products to neighbouring West African nations.

According to a Bloomberg story on Tuesday, a tanker had transported a consignment of petrol from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery to seas off the coast of Togo, a nearby West African nation. The article cited data from Vortexa, Kpler, Precise Intelligence, a port report, and a ship-tracking tool.

According to the source, a CL Jane Austen recently departed west after loading over 300,000 barrels from Dangote.

Recall that Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, the chairman of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, stated last month that the nation is thinking of purchasing petroleum products from the Dangote refinery in order to reduce the approximately $400 million it spends each month on more costly exports from Europe.

Speaking at the OTL Africa Downstream Oil Conference in Lagos, the chairman of NPA, Ghana, said that by eliminating freight expenses, buying from Nigeria instead of Europe will lower the cost of other products and services.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone, so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

Two weeks ago, it was announced that the refinery would start exporting fuel to Namibia, Angola, and South Africa. Four more African nations—Niger Republic, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Central Africa Republic—had also begun talks with the refinery, it was said.

According to a very reliable source who spoke directly to one of our reporters, the management of the refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day was in the advanced stages of negotiations with the nations to begin lifting petroleum.

“I can confirm to you that talks are actually at the advanced stage with Ghana, Angola, Namibia, and South Africa, while the initial discussion is coming up with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic,” the source said.

The petroleum product shipment is currently floating off the coast of Lome, which is a well-liked location for ship-to-ship transfers, according to the source.

Furthermore, the final destination of the cargo of the CL Jane Austen is uncertain.

Despite being off Togo, the region is frequently utilised for ship-to-ship transfers, thus the gasoline may eventually be transported elsewhere.

“While the shipment is tiny in the context of the global gasoline market, it signals the ramp-up of Dangote’s production and the potential to export significant volumes of gasoline beyond Nigeria, which could upend regional markets.”

Last month, the refinery sent its first shipment of petrol by sea to Lagos, a neighbouring commercial centre.

Under the regulatory statute, the Federal Government last month terminated the state-owned oil company’s monopoly on purchasing gasoline from the plant for domestic use, but it has permitted the ongoing importation of fuel from the US and Europe.