AfricaRail

AfricaRail is a project to link the gauge railway systems of Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo. A future proposal is to link Mali, Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana—which have different gauges—to the system.

Description

AfricaRail is a project that proposes to link the railway systems of Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin and Togo. These are all gauge.
A future stage is proposed to link Mali, Senegal, which are also gauge; Nigeria and Ghana have a different narrow gauge of but are converting to.

History

;2015
Various links.

West African rail loop of 2740 km.
Abidjan to Ouagadougou line.
proposed new 1000mm gauge line linking Niger and Parakou in Benin
rehabilitation of the existing line from Parakou to port of Cotonou in Benin.
new link to Lomé in Togo.

On 8 April 2019 Ghana's Ministry of Railways Development reached an agreement with GERC to construct the Tema - Accra - Koforidua - Kumasi eastern line.
In 2020 the government of Ghana ordered new standard gauge rail equipment, and the Ghana Eastern SG line was approved.
In 2022, the businessman Jeremie Taieb became the Head of the Strategic Steering Committee, in order to finance the project with international donors.
In April 2025 a standard gauge "Sahel Railway" connecting the landlocked countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger was announced. This railway would be paid for by nationalisation of Gold, Uranium and Cotton industries in these three Sahel countries and also remittencies from national disaspera. /