Zimbabwe’s state-owned railway company is negotiating a $115 million facility with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to purchase locomotives and wagons and expand haulage capacity, an official said on Thursday.
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ), which now operates under the country’s sovereign wealth fund Mutapa Investments, was talking to the African lender to unlock funds for 10 locomotives and 315 wagons, the fund’s Chief Executive Officer John Mangudya said.
The funds would also be used to repair parts of the NRZ’s railway infrastructure, he added.
Mangudya spoke as NRZ commissioned three locomotives and 100 wagons refurbished under a partnership with Sinosteel’s Zimbabwean ferrochrome unit, Zimasco.
NRZ has struggled for years due to under-investment by the government and has stepped up collaborations with private logistics firms to boost freight volumes which collapsed from a peak of 12 million tons in the 1990s, to 2 million tons in 2025.
On July 21, NRZ said it was hauling lithium concentrate to Maputo port in Mozambique by rail in partnership with private operators, adding a cheaper transport option to the mining industry which currently trucks most of its minerals to port.
NRZ requires a $600 million investment to upgrade its rolling stock and network, Mangudya said.
(Reporting by Chris Takudzwa Muronzi, editing by Nelson Banya and Kirsten Donovan)
