Kenya’s neighbours seek funding adviser for $4 billion railway

(Reuters) Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are looking for an adviser to help them secure financing for a $4.13 billion railway project aimed at boosting cross-border trade in the region.

The railway will link Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam with the capital cities of landlocked Rwanda and Burundi.

The Tanzanian transport ministry said the adviser would be required to assist the three governments in structuring the joint infrastructure deal, including investment options, marketing and providing investment risk advice.

The deadline for the submission of bids is Aug. 21. “We have jointly done all the preliminary studies. With the completion of the detailed study recently, we are now on the procurement of a transaction advisor,” the Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete said in a speech on Tuesday.

Tanzania, east Africa’s second-biggest economy, plans to invest in new transport links to become a regional transport hub, Kikwete told Reuters last week.

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Nations in the region are racing to build roads, railways and power plants to make up for decades of under-investment.