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UK allocates £620m for African infrastructure projects

UK ministerial department UK export finance (UKEF) has announced funding worth £620m for six national infrastructure projects in Gabon, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.

The deals announced yesterday (20 January) at the UK-Africa Investment Summit were:

  • Gabon: £40m will go towards a 83km road upgrade, to be delivered by Colas UK in the country’s capital of Libreville.
  • Ghana: £110m will finance Contracta Construction UK’s upgrade of Kumasi teaching hospital. This will add 750 maternity beds. Some £40m will support the firm’s expansion of Kumasi airport, which will be able to accommodate a further million travellers a year.
  • Uganda: £185m is earmarked for work on Kampala Industrial Business Park by Belfast contractor Lagan Group and local company DOTT services, which will create 200,000 jobs. A £1.5m loan will create a machinery deal between UK firm Unatrac and Mota-Engil Africa for use in roadworks.
  • Zambia: £244m will be spent on 108 rural healthcare clinics, which will be designed, built and operated by UK civil engineer NMS.

A Gabon road project

Liz Truss, UK’s international trade secretary, said: "Africa is home to eight of the 15 fastest growing economies in the world and its economic prosperity matters to the UK.    

"We want the UK to be the partner of choice in Africa so I am delighted that, with UKEF’s support, British expertise will form a key component of these infrastructure projects that will directly improve millions of lives." 

UKEF says over the past two years, it has provided financing worth almost £2bn for African infrastructure projects.

Recently UKEF has funded projects worth £500m in Oman, and $1bn in Iraq.

Top image: A render of the maternity ward at Kumasi teaching hospital, images courtesy of UKEF

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