With a $200 million loan from the World Bank, Togolese authorities aim to improve the transport situation in and around Lomé. The central element of this is the resumption of freight transport by rail.

The focus of the infrastructure programme is the rehabilitation of the railway line between the port of Lomé and the industrial hub of Adétikopé, situated around 25 kilometres north of the capital. Along this route, freight traffic — hitherto carried by lorry through Lomé — is to be shifted onto the railway, thereby providing substantial relief for the roads in and around Lomé.

The port of Lomé is a significant transhipment point, not only for Togo itself. In the recent past, Togo has concluded several agreements with the Sahel states with the aim of handling the transport of goods for these landlocked countries via the port of Lomé. With the reactivation of the railway, the government hopes not only to relieve the roads, but also to substantially strengthen the Adétikopé Industrial Platform, where the handling, storage and processing of products from the region are to be consolidated. Togo is intended to become more than simply a transit country for Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and other landlocked states, but to produce goods itself and improve the export of these products. Many West African ports are seeking access to the Sahel states, and Togo hopes that reactivating the railway line will provide it with a strategic advantage in the competition for market share.