Construction World February 2017

COMMENT

As a continent, Africa is expected to grow economically by about 6% annually to 2033. The one factor that can stop Africa from achieving this is infrastructure – particularly the dire lack thereof.

Harbour infrastructure upgrades are essential in unlocking Africa’s growth potential. Durban Port recently upgraded some of its wharfs to increase capacity.

IDE Consulting Services says that the absence of adequate infrastructure costs Africa’s GDP up to 2% a year. It goes on to say that three quarters of Africa’s infrastructure projects do not get off the ground because of infrastructure inadequacies. A reason often cited for this is the lack of funding for such infrastructure development. The World Bank has stated that Africa has to spend USD93-billion until 2020 to bridge this gap. Yet, the truth is that African governments, and other multi and bilateral resources, are already funding about USD4-billion across Africa annually. This is a clear indication that various projects, of a relatively sizeable nature, are happening. There is general consensus that the answer to solve the infrastructure shortage, is that planned projects actually happen – not necessarily finding funding for more projects. In a recent article Ravi Kumar, director of IDE says this will ensure that projects will start to deliver returns, which will in turn attract more investors. There have been enough major projects in Africa to allow one to identify problem areas in the identification, planning and execution of projects: lack of policy frameworks, bad financing frameworks, substandard project and contract management and insufficient monitoring of projects that are being executed. Armed with this knowledge, stakeholders will hopefully not make the same mistakes again. Who is funding Africa’s projects? Development finance institutions and export credit agencies are largely responsible for major infrastructure activity in Africa (building, upgrading and maintaining). These include the World Bank, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), African Development Bank (ADB) and the Agence Française De Développement (AFD).

Some of the major African infrastructure projects • West African rail network to connect Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo When completed, the rail will be 3 000 km long. • The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Situated in the Blue Nile, this dam will generate 6 000 MW. • The Mombasa-Kigali Railway Project A 3 000 km long railway, connecting three African states. • Kenya’s Konza Techno City Built on 5 000 acres of land and part of the Kenya Vision 2030. • The Ethiopia-to-Djibouti Rail Link A 650 km railway linking Addis Ababa with the Port of Doraleh in Djibouti • The Grand Inga Dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo situated near the Inga Falls – this dam would have cost USD80-billion when completed. • SolarReserve’s Jasper Solar Power Project in South Africa: SolarReserve has 238 MW of solar projects under construction.

Wilhelm du Plessis Editor

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EDITOR & DEPUTY PUBLISHER Wilhelm du Plessis constr@crown.co.za ADVERTISING MANAGER Erna Oosthuizen ernao@crown.co.za LAYOUT & DESIGN Lesley Testa CIRCULATION Karen Smith

PUBLISHER Karen Grant

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD FEBRUARY 2017