The Botswana government has pledged to provide an additional $159 million (€105 million) to boost the project. The OPEC fund for international development has also pledged $40 million (€26 million).

The funding would go towards improving transport networks between Botswana and neighbouring Namibia, South Africa, Zambia. Zambia is also landlocked, but Namibia offers links to Walvis Bay port via the Trans Kalahari Highway and South Africa links to both Maputo and Durban. Durban is Africa’s busiest container port.

World Bank transport economist Supee Teravaninthorn believes Botswana’s investment in transport infrastructure would enable it to better take part in the regional and global economies, while at the same time creating capacity to reduce its dependency on diamonds.

“The proposed project aims to provide the necessary capacity building and the infrastructure improvement which will, in turn, increase its competitive edge required for opening up the opportunity for export diversification,” said Teravaninthorn.

The seven to 10 year project would see significant improvements to road and rail links, however it is not clear what exactly would be covered within the scope of the project.

Recently a World Bank report noted that Africa needed to spend $93 billion per year over the next decade on energy, transport, water and technology to deal with the poor quality of infrastructure on the continent.