The battle for economic supremacy in East Africa seems to be getting hotter as Tanzania and Uganda lead Kenya in prospective infrastructure projects for 2019.
According to Debtwire, an intelligence service that researches and reports on corporate debt situations, the value of Tanzania’s infrastructure projects for the year is Ksh650 Billion, while that of Uganda is Ksh550 Billion. Kenya’s projects will only cost ksh50 Billion.
This coming at a time when the treasury tabled a report in parliament revealing that the implementation of some 545 major projects had stalled as President Uhuru Kenyatta initiated harsh austerity measures.
Kenya’s only project to watch this year, according to Debtwire, is the upgrading of the more than 100km of highway between Nairobi and Magadi at a cost of Ksh50 Billion. The building of Nyali bridge is also expected to progress.
Treasury allocated Ksh72.3 Billion for development activities by the State Department for Infrastructure in the current financial year.
By December 2018, Treasury had released Ksh28.9 Billion for infrastructure projects such as roads, energy projects, bridges, dams and so forth.
The report indicates that Tanzania will be at the forefront of the infrastructure transactions with the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project, which Kenya lost. The pipeline will link Tanzania to Uganda.
Tanzania will also build a 1,057km rail, the second phase of a 2,561km railway project masterplan. The total debt sought will be up to Ksh300 Billion.
Tanzania has inked a deal with the Chinese to develop a port at Bagamoyo, which is expected to handle about 20 Million containers. It has been billed as East Africa’s race for the biggest port.
In Uganda, the authors of the report expect a major oil downstream transaction to approach the market in 2020, with front-end engineering design. The project will account for Ksh400 Billion.
The other project in Uganda is the progress on the 95km Kampala-Jinja highway, with the cost of the project estimated at Ksh150 billion.
