Zimbabwe's government on Tuesday announced a funding agreement for the upgrade of the Chirundu border with Zambia, to reduce delays on a vital gateway connecting the central African copperbelt to southern African ports.

The deal between Zimbabwe and its private sector partners, the Chirundu Border Consortium, clears the path to construction work, the country's transport and infrastructure development ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Chirundu border, inaugurated as Africa's first one-stop border post in 2009, is a key gateway on the North-South Corridor, handling freight between ports in South Africa and Mozambique and the Zambia-DRC Copperbelt.

Traffic through the crossing includes copper, cobalt, fuel, mining equipment, reagents, fertilisers and other traded goods, with trucks often facing bottlenecks and lengthy delays.

Major upgrade

The border modernisation project will overhaul old infrastructure, introduce advanced operational and processing systems to reduce delays and congestion at one of Africa's busiest transit points, the ministry said.

The ministry did not disclose the final investment for the public-private partnership project, but Zimbabwe's Cabinet has previously said the project would cost $66.8 million and be operated by private investors for 20 years under a concession agreement.

Safaga International, which led the $300 million upgrade of Zimbabwe's Beitbridge border with South Africa, is leading the Chirundu border project. South Africa's Strategic Partners Group is also a strategic investor in the project.

Standard Bank is the lead debt arranger and senior lender.