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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
SEPTEMBER
2016
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MARKETPLACE
©
Stock Photo (Editorial image) by John Wollwerth
Says newly appointed country
manager for Kenya, Daimon Keith:
“Our ongoing focus on continued
expansion on the continent is
increasingly important in growing our busi-
ness globally.
“Having set-up originally in South Africa
34 years ago, we are currently involved in
over 40 projects outside of South Africa at
various stages of the project lifecycle, from
setup through delivery and close out. We are
working mainly in the telecoms, oil and gas,
infrastructure, health, education, and hotel
and leisure sectors specifically in Kenya and
more broadly across East Africa.
“In achieving growth now and into
the future our Africa strategy incorporates
three main hubs, concentrated in the SADC
(Southern African Development Community),
East African Community (EAC) and West
Africa. We have developed our business in
SADC for many years and while we continue
to grow, our focus at present is on EAC as
this is the next logical step given our exist-
ing client base and the opportunity to intro-
duce new services and develop skill sets in
the region. In West Africa, Nigeria and Ghana
will be our focus areas as we seek
new project opportunities.”
Keith says South Africa has proven an
important gateway for Turner & Townsend’s
continued growth in Africa, with the Johan-
nesburg office the first of the regional offices
globally to be established outside of the UK.
“The South African business began with a
focus in the mining sector and then grew
outwards into Africa. However, the gateway
into East Africa for us was our Uganda office,
launched off the back of a project with
Tullow Oil, resulting in additional work from
other clients and enabling us to build our
brand. We encouraged one of our
Ugandan professionals – Elizabeth
Natukunda, who was working for Turner &
Townsend in the UK, to return to Uganda to
run the business. Last year she was highly
commended as a young up and coming
consultant during the British Expertise Inter-
national Awards 2015, given her success in
Uganda over the last five years.
“With Kenya being the largest economy
in East Africa it became imperative for us to
have a Nairobi base if we want to grow our
presence across the EAC. Support residing
in Kenya is also strategically important as a
base for many of our global clients that have
large operations in country.
Keith says having breadth of experience
The Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Kenya is
the largest economy in East Africa.
Growth in Africa and in particular East Africa
is providing a major catalyst for the increased
expansion of global construction and
management consultants Turner & Townsend,
which has opened an office in Kenya.
OFFICES
in
KENYA
across African countries is important because
the project challenges and risks of doing
business are vastly different in each African
country. “The fact that we have experience
across 38 countries in Africa means that we
can offer and deliver a service that is realistic
and relevant, with solutions that meet
the expectations of both local and global
players. In East Africa – besides Uganda
and Kenya – we are currently delivering
projects in Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and
Djibouti. We take this pan-African experience
and contextualise it for the local market.
Our philosophy in providing solutions is an
inclusive, client-centric approach – while
leveraging off our global and local expertise
and experience.
“Kenya has its ‘vision 2030’ ambitions to
create infrastructure and they have recently
set up and gazetted a public private part-
nership (PPP) framework that is backed by a
Presidential Delivery Unit. We have a strong
skill set to be able to offer services in this
space, and in terms of property are currently
engaged with General Electric, Safaricom and
Aga Khan Health Services. Another key area
of focus is the natural resources sector and
we are working with clients locally to deliver
commercially viable schemes, for example
Newly appointed country
manager for Kenya,
Daimon Keith.
>
pipelines in the oil and gas sector.”
Keith says the lack of liquidity
in certain countries in Africa makes
PPP an attractive model. “This is
an area we can really add value as
we have a lot of experience playing
a technical advisory role for these
types of projects. Our understanding
of the local market, the supply chain
and how they procure along with
the relevant local and international
benchmarks will also allow us to add
value to any owner’s team on capital
projects. We can get involved at any
stage of the project lifecycle be it
feasibility, project set-up, or project
delivery. During the project lifecycle
we are able to offer the following
services as required by the client,
namely cost management, project
management, project controls and
contract services (claims assess-
ments, disputes resolution, contract
administration).”