Ethiopia and Nigeria have signed a Gas-by-Rail Economic Corridor partnership through Nigeria’s Insight Dynamic Resources, setting in motion a private sector project intended to link 40 Sub-Saharan African countries through a 73,500-kilometre freight railway. Ethiopia will serve as the host country for the programme.

The corridor forms part of a wider plan to build a continental transport and energy system. Insight Dynamic Resources aims to deploy up to 470 high-efficiency gas turbines to create a 270-gigawatt baseload power network across Africa. To fuel these turbines, the partners plan to establish a virtual pipeline able to move 100 million tonnes of hydrogen annually. Projections linked to the wider programme indicate that job creation could reach more than 70 million by 2050.

The project requires a substantial logistics fleet, including more than 5,100 heavy-haul locomotives, about 80,000 specialised tank units and nearly 100,000 wagons and coaches. Siemens Mobility will provide the digital infrastructure for the transport network through its Xcelerator platform, a system that uses artificial intelligence, digital-twin technology and real-time monitoring to coordinate traffic and manage capacity.

Ethiopia currently has 5,000 kilometres of designed railway routes, though only 902 kilometres are operational. The agreement is expected to support efforts to mobilise private investment, expand regional connectivity and strengthen alignment with the African Continental Free Trade Area. The corridor is also projected to give Ethiopia access to more than 1,000 kilometres of railway across 40 states.