EAC Trade Corridors: Where Infrastructure Investment Is Flowing

Infrastructure investment across the East African Community has been concentrated rather than evenly spread, and the pattern of where capital is actually flowing tells a clearer story than the announcements alone. The Northern Corridor Remains The Priority Linking the Port of Mombasa through Nairobi to Kampala, Kigali, and onward, the Northern Corridor continues to attract the largest share of committed infrastructure capital, spanning port capacity upgrades, road rehabilitation, and standard gauge rail extensions. For logistics-dependent businesses, corridor efficiency here has a direct and measurable effect on landed cost. LAPSSET Is Progressing In Segments, Not As A Whole The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport corridor continues to move forward on a segment-by-segment basis rather than as a single completed programme. Businesses planning around it should treat individual segments - the port itself, specific road links - as independently investable milestones rather than waiting for full corridor completion. Port And Rail Investment Is Where Capital Concentrates Of the infrastructure categories we track, port capacity and rail investment have drawn the largest committed capital over recent reporting periods, ahead of road and energy infrastructure, reflecting a regional prioritization of bulk freight movement over last-mile road capacity. What This Means For Logistics-Dependent Businesses Businesses whose cost base is sensitive to freight and transit time should be mapping their supply chains against corridor investment timelines directly, since realistic cost and lead-time planning depends on distinguishing infrastructure that is funded and underway from infrastructure that is still at the announcement stage. Our Operations and Performance Improvement team incorporates this corridor-level data directly into supply chain and site-location work for clients operating across the region.