Titolo completo

Beyond Extraction: Aligning European and African Interests to Unlock the Full Potential of the Lobito Corridor

Africa’s critical minerals boom presents an opportunity to strengthen its economic sovereignty. This requires leveraging Africa’s minerals wealth to drive regional industrialisation, boost productivity, create quality jobs and generate domestic revenues needed to finance own development ambitions. For Europe, access to critical raw materials is a strategic necessity, underpinning the green transition and reducing dependence on single suppliers. At a time of intense geopolitical competition, the added value of Europe’s proposal should be the concrete contribution to local African development, most importantly through infrastructure investment that connects markets and builds the foundations for sustainable growth. The Lobito Corridor, a critical infrastructure stretching from Angola’s Atlantic coast to mineral-rich regions of the DRC and Zambia, offers an illustrative example where African and European interests align. European private capital and expertise are being deployed through industrial offtake agreements to unlock investment in energy infrastructure to power large-scale mining operations while simultaneously extending energy access to predominantly rural communities across the region.

Paper produced in the framework of the research project “Italy at the forefront of infrastructure diplomacy: the Lobito Corridor case”.