Context and objectives 

Strategic corridors in Africa can deepen the Africa‑EU partnership by directing investments with the greatest mutual benefit, while supporting rural and urban development. The 2024‑2029 Political Guidelines of the European Commission propose to strengthen EU‑Africa cooperation via Global Gateway investments in transport corridors, ports, renewable energy, green hydrogen and raw‑material value chains. 

The European Commission the Directorate-General for international Partnerships (DG-INTPA) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) have been jointly performing studies on ‘Corridors and Urban Systems in Africa’ (CUSA). In the first phase of the project (2020-2021), 11 strategic corridors were identified. Following political developments, the list has been slightly adjusted and in November 2023 a twelfth corridor was added. The final list comprises the following 12 corridors: 

1. Corridor 1: Abidjan-Lagos (Western Africa) – Côte d’Ivoire (CIV), Ghana (GHA), Togo (GHA), Benin (BEN), Nigeria (NGA); 

2. Corridor 2: Abidjan-Ouagadougou (Western Africa) – Côte d'Ivoire (CIV), Burkina Faso (BFA); 

3. Corridor 3: Praia-Dakar-Abidjan (Western Africa) – Cabo Verde (CPV), Senegal (SEN), Gambia (GMB), Guinea-Bissau (GNB), Guinea (GIN), Sierra Leone (SLE), Liberia (LBR), Côte d’Ivoire (CIV); 

4. Corridor 4: Cotonou-Niamey (Western Africa): Benin (BEN), Niger (NER); 

5. Corridor 5: Libreville-Kribi-Douala-N’Djamena (Central Africa) – São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), Gabon (GAB), Equatorial Guinea (GNQ), Cameroon (CMR), Chad (TCD); 

6. Corridor 6: Douala-Kribi-Bangui-Kisangani-Kampala (Central Africa) – Cameroon (CMR), Central African Republic (CAF), Democratic Republic of the Congo (COD), Uganda (UGA);

7. Corridor 7: Dar es Salaam-Nairobi-Addis Ababa-Berbera-Djibouti (Eastern Africa) – Tanzania (TZA), Kenya (KEN), Ethiopia (ETH), Somalia (SOM), Djibouti (DJI); 

8. Corridor 8: Mombasa-Kisangani (Eastern Africa) – Kenya (KEN), Uganda (UGA), Rwanda (RWA), Democratic Republic of the Congo (COD); 

9. Corridor 9: Maputo-Gaborone-Walvis Bay-Lüderitz (Southern Africa) – Mozambique (MOZ), South Africa (ZAF), Eswatini (SWZ), Botswana (BWA), Namibia (NAM); 

10. Corridor 10: Durban-Lusaka-Lubumbashi (Southern Africa) – South Africa (ZAF), Botswana (BWA), Zimbabwe (ZWE), Zambia (ZMB), Democratic Republic of the Congo (COD); 

11. Corridor 11: Cairo-Khartoum-Juba-Kampala (Northern & Eastern Africa) – Egypt (EGY), Sudan (SDN), South Sudan (SSD), Uganda (UGA); 

12. Corridor 12: Lobito-Kolwezi-Lubumbashi-Solwezi-Ndola (Southern Africa) – Angola (AGO), Democratic Republic of the Congo (COD), Zambia (ZMB); 

Figure 1: The 12 priority corridors. Source: Kavalov et al., 2025 

During the second phase of the project (2022-2024), specific areas of vulnerability and opportunity at national and regional level have been identified, with the objective of strengthening transport and trade corridor efficiency, broken down into four sub-objectives: 1) reduce carbon footprint and preserve biodiversity; 2) digitalise the corridors; 3) improve accessibility 4) unlock productive areas and support value chains’ development, in mining, raw materials, agriculture and agri-business, and industry. 

During the 3rd phase of the project, the 12 corridors were compared against the above 4 main criteria, using spatially explicit indicators covering a buffer area around the corridors, defined as the areas reachable by driving within 120 minutes. 

Results 

Reducing carbon footprint and preserving biodiversity 

The most fragile areas in this regard, thus those were interventions would be more beneficial, are the ones with high level of pollutions, lowest presence of forest and fastest growing population. Based on the analysis, Corridors 10 ‘Durban-Lusaka-Lubumbashi’ and 6 ‘Douala-Kribi-Bangui-Kisangani-Kampala’ are hose more in need of interventions to reduce carbon footprint and preserving biodiversity, but in general all corridors have promising potential to improve carbon footprint and biodiversity performance. The areas where this would be more challenging, i.e. those currently poorly performing, overlap with major urban agglomerations 

Enhancing digitalisation 

Corridor 1 ‘Abidjan-Lagos’ is the only one that enters the greenish is the one with the highest potential for this criteria, followed by corridors 12 ‘Lobito-Kolwezi-Lubumbashi-Solwezi-Ndola’ and 4 ‘Cotonou-Niamey’ follow next. Corridor 10 ‘Durban-Lusaka- Lubumbashi’ has the lowest potential due to already well-developed digitalisation and hence, more limited incremental potential for further expansion. 

Improving accessibility 

Areas with the greatest potential to improve accessibility have been identified as those with fastest growing population, highest congestion in and between urban centres, with under-developed access to public services, lowest presence of transport networks and transport hubs, lowest natural (e.g. floods) and man-related (e.g. conflicts) risks. In this case, all corridors have a high potential, with no. 7 (Dar es Salaam – Djibouti) and 3 (Praia-Dakar-Abidjan) scoring the highest. 

Unlocking Productive Areas 

Areas with the largest potential for improvement, i.e. most attractive for investments, are those that are under-connected or lack accessibility. These were identified as those with highest number of existing investments, the highest prevalence of productive areas, (e.g. mineral extraction sites, cropland), with under-developed network accessibility, fast growing population, low number of transport networks, lowest natural and man-related risks; and highest greenhouse gas emissions. 
Based on these criteria, corridors 1 ‘Abidjan-Lagos’ and 3 ‘Praia-Dakar-Abidjan’ were identified as the most promising ones. 

Finally, the largest potential for the overarching objective of strengthening transport and trade efficiency is estimated for corridor 1 ‘Abidjan-Lagos’, followed by corridor 10 ‘Durban-Lusaka- Lubumbashi’ and corridor 6 ‘Douala-Kribi-Bangui-Kisangani-Kampala’. 

More detailed data at fine disaggregation level (5x5 km) on each indicator on all considered indicators for each corridor can be found in this Addendum.