FARAH: LAPSSET: The investment must match the vision

Mr Abdi O Farah, Mr. Farah, a Development Practitioner based in Nairobi

The Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor has outgrown its original frame.

It must now be seen not merely as infrastructure, but as a national multiplier. LAPSSET is a strategic platform for trade, regional integration, digital innovation, and climate resilience.

It carries the rare potential to unite Kenya’s development ambitions not just physically, but programmatically. And in the age of Artificial Intelligence, it may well be the country’s most powerful bridge to a smarter, greener, and more connected future.

Consider the timing. As Kenya begins to implement its National AI Strategy 2025 to 2030, few opportunities align more perfectly than LAPSSET.

AI can give this corridor the capacity to anticipate, optimise, and evolve. Ports can learn from data. Roads can monitor their own condition. Border posts can automate clearance. Smart grids can manage renewable energy dynamically.

Some of these initiatives are already underway. However, the moment calls for execution and sustained investment. Kenya has made commendable progress in aligning LAPSSET with broader national goals, from Vision 2030 to the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.

The LAPSSET Authority has pursued cross-sectoral integration, and regional partnerships are gaining traction. Yet the scale of LAPSSET’s promise still far exceeds the attention and investment it has attracted.

LAPSSET’s master plan is estimated at $25 billion, with the potential to boost Kenya’s GDP by up to 3 per cent annually once fully operational.

This direct economic benefit is expected to create a platform for even greater growth, with further opportunities across sectors like manufacturing and agriculture. But less than 20 per cent of the planned investment has been mobilised.

This financing gap is both a challenge and an opportunity: the corridor will only transform from blueprint to backbone if it attracts catalytic capital at scale.

Importantly, Kenya enjoys a competitive edge over its corridor partners in key enablers such as internet penetration and digital infrastructure.

Its strength in ICT policy maturity, reflected in the depth, coherence, and consistent implementation of its digital frameworks, positions the country to lead in leveraging technology for development.

Regionally, the stakes are profound. For Ethiopia, LAPSSET represents a long-sought lifeline to the sea.

For South Sudan, it is a secure outlet for oil exports. For Kenya, it is the gateway between the Indian Ocean and the African hinterland, placing Lamu at the crossroads of continental trade.

Few projects hold such potential to redraw Africa’s economic geography.

This advantage allows Kenya to extract greater value from AI-powered systems, digital logistics, and e-government efficiencies along the corridor.

With the right investment, this digital readiness can translate into real economic returns, amplifying both the performance and the revenue potential of LAPSSET.

To unlock its full potential, the government must invest in LAPSSET as the national development engine it is.

It should be framed as a living platform where agriculture, health, trade, ICT, and climate strategies converge.

For it is not only a corridor of commerce, but one that converges intelligence, resilience, and inclusive growth.

The possible returns are extraordinary. Picture agro-value chains thriving through intelligent logistics.

Imagine mobile health clinics coordinated across counties using AI-powered transport systems.

Visualise export-ready industrial parks, powered by renewable energy and seamlessly connected to Lamu Port.

Envision data centres lining the corridor, sustainably powered and regionally integrated. And that is just the tip.

These are economic accelerators that will not materialise on their own.

Realising this vision requires visible political commitment, coordinated financing, and most critically, renewed confidence from investors both domestic and international.

That confidence must be cultivated deliberately. The corridor cannot rely on public funds alone.

It demands blended finance models, green bonds for renewable energy, public-private partnerships in logistics, and even sovereign wealth co-investment. Diaspora bonds and digital infrastructure funds could also channel untapped capital into the project. Investors must see LAPSSET not as a sunk cost, but as a living engine of long-term returns.

Of course, ambition does not erase risk. Security concerns in Lamu, debt sustainability questions, and the environmental impact of mega-infrastructure cannot be wished away. But with transparent governance, climate-smart design, and AI-driven monitoring, these risks can be managed.

In fact, how Kenya confronts these challenges may well determine whether LAPSSET becomes a corridor of confidence or caution. The policies are in place. The vision is clear. Key milestones have already been achieved.

What is now required is a deliberate unlocking of LAPSSET’s full promise through deeper integration, institutional coordination, and catalytic capital flows.

In an era defined by intelligent systems, climate urgency, and continental trade, the countries that thrive will be those that invest ambitiously in platforms that multiply national value.

For Kenya, that bet is Africa’s bridge to the future: LAPSSET.

The writer is is a Development Practitioner based in Nairobi; [email protected]