EU-Zambia Lobito Corridor Business Forum 2025

EU-Zambia Lobito Corridor Business Forum welcomed Zambia’s President Hichilema, Commissioner for International Partnerships Síkela, EIB Vice-President Nehammer and over 900 participants, mostly businesses, investors, financing institutions as well as government and cooperating partners, eager to explore business opportunities around the future Lobito strategic economic corridor. The corridor will connect Zambia’s mining and agriculture regions to the port of Angola and to world markets.

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A dozen of Team Europe funded programmes worth 200M€ designed to underpin the development of the corridor in the broad sense were ceremonially announced at the Forum. 

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The message of three days of intense panel discussions and B2B meetings was clear – Zambia is ready for business and Europe is ready to invest, in a sustainable and human-centred approach exemplified by the 360° approach of Global Gateway. Team Europe is essential to this effort and strong business delegations from Sweden, Finland, Czechia and others backed with political participation proved the point. 

EU and Zambia share economic interest in securing reliable value chains for critical raw minerals and development of local processing and jobs in key economic sectors driving the growth around the Lobito corridor – critical raw minerals, energy and agriculture. The Forum explored in detail key enabling factors to develop those sectors – environmental and social impact, urban growth mapping and needs assessment, as well as access to finance – with CEOs of biggest Zambian banks sharing the table with EIB and Member States development financing institutions. 

Bustling business to business networking and targeted matchmaking and pitching sessions between European and Zambian companies and investors turned the conference centre into a real investment hub. From large mining service suppliers to start-ups looking at technology solutions for ESG complains and supply chain traceability. From interconnectors linking Zambian to the Southern African Power Pool to mini-grid solutions and clean-cooking technology directly brining renewable energy to the communities. Specific agri-value-chains identified for climate-smart business model investments. 

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