The Government of Ghana has signed the concession agreement for the construction of a much anticipated high-speed railway in Accra, Ghana’s capital. The signing took place on the opening day of the second Africa Investment Forum last week.

The Accra Sky train project is backed by the African Development Bank. The Accra Skytrain project, representing an investment of US$2.6 billion, is a high-capacity public transport system that is completely automated and cost-efficient public mass transit system that will use air propulsion technology to drive lightweight, high passenger volume vehicles. The system will transport more than 380,000 passengers annually and create some 5,000 jobs during its implementation phase.

Sky train systems are pre-fabricated using precision moulded, pre-stressed reinforced concrete components that are capable of being installed at a very rapid rate, meaning that there is minimal disruption and congestion in the urban area that is undergoing installation and commissioning.

The agreement was signed with the African Investment SkyTrain Consortium of South Africa which consists of Wilson Bayly Holmes, a construction engineering company in South Africa; BUNENGI Group, a project development company focused on developing projects in infrastructure; and Ai Capital, the investment and financing arm of the Ai Group, one of the most in influential international investment banking advisory groups focused on Africa.

The project objective is to develop, finance and operate environmentally friendly, elevated, passenger & freight transit systems. The project will involve the development of five routes. Four of them will be radial routes that originate at the proposed sky train terminal at a newly developed Kwame Nkrumah circle, and one route will provide and intra-city commuter loop distribution service. The project will have a total track length of 194km across all routes.

Ghana Investment Promotion Centre CEO Yofi Grant expressed confidence that the project would reach financial close by this time next year.

Investors are confident that the first station for the Accra SkyTrain project will be opened in 9 months.