AfDB, EIB lend Mauritania $275 million for railway upgrade

RABAt (Reuters) -The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a financing package worth $275 million to help Mauritania upgrade its main railway corridor.

Under the agreement, the AfDB will contribute $150 million and the EIB $125 million to modernise the railway linking iron ore mines in Zouerate, in northeastern Mauritania, to the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou, the lenders said in a statement.

The deal, guaranteed by the European Union, was signed on the sidelines of the Africa Investment Forum in Rabat, the statement added.

The financing will enable Mauritania's national industrial and mining company (SNIM) to rehabilitate the existing railway and build 42 kilometres of new track to connect future mining sites at El Aouj and Atomai, it said.

It will also allow SNIM, the country's largest employer, to acquire locomotives, wagons and maintenance equipment, it added.

(Reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)