Construction World March 2016

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STUDY REVEALS HUGE AFRICAN GROWTH Urbanisation, mobility, infrastructure, natural resources, telecommunications investments and inter-regional trade are just a few of the untapped opportunities making Africa the last growth frontier. The continent is set to become the second fastest growing region by 2025, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of USD4,5-trillion.

Africa. “The big advantage that Africa does have, believe it or not, is the lack of infrastructure and the lack of legacy systems because our ability to leapfrog technologies and get access to that growth much sooner than, for instance, South East Asia had the ability to do is significantly better”. Some of the key trends revealed in the ‘Mega Trends in Africa’ analysis

Perrie is one of South Africa's leading authorities on concrete pavements and globally respected in this field, having delivered papers on the subject at dozens of top-level conferences all over the world. He was elected to the new ISCP post at a recent ISCP meeting which coincided with the Transportation Research Board's 95 th annual Bryan Perrie, managing director of The Con- crete Institute, has been elected vice-president of the Interna tional Society for Concrete Pave- ments (ISCP). > INTERNATIONAL POST FOR BRYAN PERRIE Africa will have tremendous market potential for firms operating in the digital currency space. By the end of 2015, there will be 12 million Bitcoin wallets in Africa. Nearly one-third of Kenyans will be using a Bitcoin wallet. Online retail will grow significantly in the next five years and will account for nearly 7% of total retail sales in Africa in 2025. Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, and Kenya are emerging as the top markets for online retailing in Africa. Energy demand will grow to 930.4 MTOE in 2025, which is more than double the current demand. The mining and minerals industry will be the bulk consumers of energy by 2025. Africa will grow from its current nascent stage to an emerging renewable energy hub with a substantial compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% by 2025 Africa’s trade volume is likely to grow threefold by 2030. East Africa is projected to have the highest growth in trade volume, driven by improved transportation infrastructure. The Proposed Free Trade Area (T-FTA) between South African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC) is expected to drive imports by an average of 60% by 2020.

In a new video, ‘Mega Trends in Africa’, Frost & Sullivan experts and C-level executives note that Africa is the only continent that has the potential to achieve double digit economic growth within the next decade. It is expected that close to half of the continent’s population will live in large cities and that 58% of its working age population (15–64) will exist in 2025. If this trend continues for the next 20 years, Africa will have the highest labour population surpassing both China and India. “The growth rates promised by Africa are second to that of South East Asia at the moment”, notes Hendrik Malan, operations director at Frost & Sullivan > UNIQUE AFRICAN-BORN CONSULTANCY Engineering consultancy, GladAfrica Group recently announced the acquisition of Ariya Project Managers. Since its establishment in 2005, Ariya has delivered a number of South Africa’s high-profiled and prestigious infrastructure projects and exemplifies the ability of empowered companies to meet the rigorous challenges in the local built environment. The acquisition gears GladAfrica to be the largest 100% black-owned consultancy group in Southern Africa. According to GladAfrica’s executive chairman, Noel Mashaba, “We wanted to create a completely African-born organisation within the built environment, while realising our vision of creating life-changing built-environment solutions. The Group will now operate and offer all full services from all nine provinces in South Africa with a strengthened project management capacity and the ability to further customise our comprehensive selection of project management services.” Ariya is wholly black-owned with a 35% black women shareholding, as well as a level 2 B-BBEE and an international ISO 9001: 2008 accreditation. While GladAfrica will retain its engineering consulting arm, the group will establish a new specialised company to focus primarily on project manage- ment services, including development management, tenant co-ordination and installation and procurement management. Ariya’s current managing director, Sigi Naidoo, will continue as managing director of the new entity. Given the solid track records of both companies in the industry and their similar work ethic and cultural fit, the new team is set to offer the local

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meeting held in Washington, and is the first South African to serve in this capacity. ISCP, of which Perrie has been a board member for several years, has since its establishment in 1997 aimed to "facilitate the advance- ment of knowledge and technology related to concrete pavements through education, technology transfer and research at an inter- national level". The ISCP's current Board of Directors include concrete pave- ment authorities frommany coun- tries including Chile, Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, and Belgium. Bryan Perrie has been elected vice-president of the Inter- national Society for Concrete Pavements (ISCP).

and regional markets exciting alternative, value-added services. Ariya’s notable list of recent projects include the MyCity BRT in Cape Town, Green Point Stadium and the University of Mpumalanga. According to Naidoo, “We embraced this opportunity to join the GladAfrica team in a joint pursuance of delivering innovative engineering and project management solutions. I have no doubt that together we will create a notable force in the built environment consulting sector.” Noel Mashaba: executive chairman (right), Kulani Curtis Lebese: group CEO (middle) and Sigi Naidoo: Ariya Project Managers (left).

CONSTRUCTION WORLD MARCH 2016