Zambia is changing its development strategy by integrating agriculture and mining.

Written by Badr Ahmed:

Zambia has announced that it has reached an agreement with the US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to expand the use of a $491 million agricultural grant program to include support for infrastructure related to vital minerals, in addition to its original agricultural objectives, in a move that reflects the accelerating shift in development priorities within the African continent.

A $491 million US grant to include support for vital minerals

The Farm-to-Market grant, signed in 2024, was originally designed to boost agricultural development and improve value chains in Zambia's agricultural sector, one of Africa's largest copper producers. However, the Zambian government has now announced the redirection of some of these funds to include infrastructure development related to the vital mining sector, in line with the country's new economic direction.

The Zambian Ministry of Finance said in an official statement that reorganizing the scope of the program will contribute to supporting both the agricultural economy and the vital mineral economy in Zambia, especially within the Lobito Corridor, which is one of the most important strategic economic corridors in the region. .

The Lobito Corridor is a massive strategic project linking the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s largest producer of copper and cobalt, with the port of Lobito on Angola’s Atlantic coast.

This corridor is seen as a key axis in Western countries' efforts to secure vital mineral supply chains, amid increasing global competition with China for resources related to the transition to clean energy.

Zambia seeks to link its copper belt region to this vital corridor, thereby enhancing its ability to export strategic minerals to international markets and supporting its position as a key player in the global minerals market.

In the same context, the African Financial Corporation, the main developer of the project, indicated that it aims to complete the financing operations related to the corridor by the last quarter of 2027, as part of an expansion plan aimed at strengthening the logistics infrastructure in the region.

The Zambian Ministry of Finance explained that part of the grant will be directed towards developing priority roads and transport facilities in the North Western and Copperbelt provinces, in line with the requirements of the Lobito Corridor, which is one of the most prominent emerging trade and logistics corridors in the African continent.

The shift in grant use reflects a broader trend in Zambia towards integrating the agricultural and mining sectors into a single development strategy aimed at boosting economic growth and increasing the country’s competitiveness in global markets.