Eight West African nations agreed Tuesday to $19 billion worth of infrastructure deals, with the lion’s share going toward a massive road and railway project by a company in the United Arab Emirates.
Abu Dhabi’s Trojan General Contracting won the $16 billion project to build roads and railways across Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. The company is owned by Royal Group, which is owned by Emirati businessman and Abu Dhabi royal family member Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
UAE companies have been aggressively expanding and investing overseas. The country sees itself as a gateway connecting Africa and the Middle East with Asia, and Asia with Europe. Backed by its oil wealth, the UAE has itself rapidly evolved in just a few decades from a nation of poor fishing villages into the one of the region’s leading investment hubs with modern infrastructure, skyscrapers and mega highways in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
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