Africa Outlook - Issue 75

AFRICA

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ISSUE 75

DPO GROUP 10 A Q&A with DPO Group, the largest pan-African payment service provider

BUSINESS TRAVEL GUIDE 22 South Africa: An insight from the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry

STEFANUTTI STOCKS 62 South Africa’s multidisciplinary construction custodian

SAFARICOM 94 Catalysing Kenya’s socioeconomic development

ALSO FEATURING: M E T RO P O L E A RC H I T EC T S | A F R I C A I M P ROV E D FO O D S | F I R E M O U N T G RO U P

BUSINESS TRAVEL GUIDES A complete guide to Africa’s leading business travel destinations

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outh Africa’s natural beauty and cultural fascination is welldocumented, and rightly so.

The tumultuous apartheid period came to an end in the 1990s, and since then the country has opened itself to the world both in terms of leisure and business tourism.

Major cities and MICE hubs are spread far and wide, some being thousands of miles from key settlements in other African countries.

Another nuance of South Africa’s formation is the fact it has not one, but three recognised capitals – Pretoria is home to the country’s executive, Cape Town its legislature and Bloemfontein the judiciary.

Such is the nation’s growing standing on the global stage, it is one of few countries to host multiple sporting world cups. In 2010 it became the first African host of the FIFA World Cup, while it has also hosted the Rugby Union World Cup (1995) and in 2003 staged the vast majority of matches in

BusinessTravel Guide

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SOUTH AFRICA

Visitors at the bronze statue of Nelson Mandela in Bloemfontein

An insight from the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry 49

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As well as being famed as a place of natural beauty, South Africa has plenty to offer to the realm of business travel and MICE tourism Writer: Tom Wadlow S O U Project Manager: Joe Palliser

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the ICC Cricket World Cup. South Africa also comes into its own in terms of its hugely varied and extraordinary terrain. From the enormous Blyde River Canyon to Table Mountain and dramatic coastal roads to the Karoo and Kalahari deserts, this is an outdoor lover’s paradise, the perfect backdrop for businesses to host meetings, events and conferences.

Throw in a largely comfortable temperate climate that sees plenty of sunshine, and you will find the Eastern Cape complete tourist package.

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Southern Association for the Capitals:African Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein Number of official languages: 11 Conference Industry Area: 1,220,813 km2 Population (2017): 56,875,000 GDP (2017): $349.4 billion Currency: Rand (R) Time zone: South Africa Standard Time (GMT+2) Dialling code: +27 Internet TLD: .za Climate: Temperate

FOUNDED IN 1987 by Nick Stathakis and Keith McCusker, the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry, better known as SAACI, is a governing body mandated to improve the standards in conference facilities, meeting venues and allied services within South Africa and the wider region.

It is a thought leadership pioneer in the MICE tourism space, hosting numerous events and conducting several projects (such as Project RISE) to raise the profile of Southern Africa as a destination for business travel.

Having spoken with the organisation in 2018, here we catch up with Kim Roberts, Vice-Chairperson of SAACI, to get the latest insight on South African tourism, as well as some detail on what SAACI has planned for the year ahead.

to the international marketplace. The increase of international conventions coming into South Africa, as a result of stronger market positioning, has allowed for more feet on our shores.

The unique experiences on offer in South Africa, as well as the way we as a nation touch the hearts of those that visit these shores, almost always result in return business for both the business events and leisure sectors.

Increased accessibility into South Africa has improved with new airline routes being added. There is so much opportunity within Africa and we look forward to seeing those routes becoming less complicated. Many

Africa Outlook (AfO): How would you say South Africa has developed recently as a business travel hub and whatWWW.AFRICAOUTLOOKMAG.COM are the key reasons behind its growing appeal?

Mpumalanga Kim Roberts (KR): South Africa has worked really hard on its exposure

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number of platforms. They apply this in their businesses, helping the tourism industry to grow.

AfO: How do you see the country developing as a business travel hub over the next year to two years?

KR: With our convention bureaus in place we continue to see growth in this space. These entities are highly focused on the Tourism Ministry’s mandate to drive economic growth and with that we are fortunate to see the growing numbers in events and expos.

There are always new facilities joining the South African meetings landscape. These properties will bring new and exciting spaces for delegates to enjoy.

African countries require a link in the Middle East or Europe in order to then get to South Africa – this change will certainly aid in economic growth.

AfO: Why, in your opinion, should someone visit South Africa?

KR: It is the home of mankind, the real roots of the human race. One comes to South Africa and there is a spiritual connection with the land, along with its natural beauty, friendly people and sophisticated infrastructure.

AfO: Are there any specific attractions, landmarks or places to eat and drink that you would recommend?

KR: I would have to say a visit to Maropeng. If I was a tour guide and could share my favourite places, the itinerary would cover a self-drive to Mpumalanga and include the Kruger National Park, the Eastern Cape wild shoreline, our winelands and the city of Cape Town. Not to forget that sunrise walk to the top of Lions Head.

With regards to eating and drinking, we have numerous fabulous restaurants and local beverages to enjoy, I would just say try something completely local or authentic, anywhere in South Africa.

Kruger National Park

“If I was a tour guide and could share my favourite places, the itinerary would cover a self-drive to Mpumalanga and include the Kruger National Park, the Eastern Cape wild shoreline, our winelands and the city of Cape Town” Cape Town

AfO: What are the best ways of getting around the country?

KR: As a first-time visitor we would encourage a registered guide to assist with your planning and even travel if possible. The local airlines are well established and can easily meet your destination needs. Gauteng has a world class rail infrastructure in the Gautrain, to get you into the City of Gold. There are options for taxis and buses, and we would just advise that they belong to recognised bodies. For experienced visitors to South Africa,

a self-drive option could make for the trip of a lifetime.

AfO: What trends are transforming the tourism industry in South Africa at present? How are you responding to these trends?

KR: Three I would identify are technology, sustainability and a focus on service excellence.

Our association stays abreast of what is happening internationally – and what works in South Africa – and shares this with members on a

AfO: Are there any plans or projects in the pipeline that you wish to highlight?

KR: We are busy with the roll out of the RISE project, a skills development programme to facilitate entry for new suppliers into the business events industry.

Having just had our 2019 congress, that had a very strong learning programme, we are already starting to work on 2020’s content and the framework of this event, to ensure we deliver as the lead in the conference industry.

Also, in the next three months, we will be holding a strategic meeting to focus on where and what our next priorities will be.

AfO: Are you optimistic about the future of the tourism industry in South Africa?

KR: Yes, you have to be. As someone recently shared with me, what you visualise you actualise.

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Our Business Travel section not only gives executives the complete guide to the world’s most popular and populous locations, but also gives said locations the perfect opportunity to showcase their own businesses, events, venues and services to a truly international audience and readership of more than 185,000 each month.

To share in this unrivalled exposure and to put your own offering on our map, then please contact our Sales Managers, Joe Palliser, Jordan Levey, Krisha Canlas or Matt Cole-Wilkin to find out more.

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W E L C O M E EDITORIAL Editorial Director: Tom Wadlow tom.wadlow@outlookpublishing.com Deputy Editor: Jonathan Dyble jonathan.dyble@outlookpublishing.com PRODUCTION Art Director: Stephen Giles steve.giles@outlookpublishing.com Senior Designer: Devon Collins devon.collins@outlookpublishing.com Junior Designer: Matt Loudwell matt.loudwell@outlookpublishing.com BUSINESS Managing Director: Ben Weaver ben.weaver@outlookpublishing.com Sales Director: Nick Norris nick.norris@outlookpublishing.com Operations Director: James Mitchell james.mitchell@outlookpublishing.com PROJECT DIRECTORS Joshua Mann joshua.mann@outlookpublishing.com Tom Cullum tom.cullum@outlookpublishing.com HEAD OF PROJECTS Callam Waller callam.waller@outlookpublishing.com TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Eddie Clinton eddie.clinton@outlookpublishing.com SALES MANAGER Donovan Smith donovan.smith@outlookpublishing.com PROJECT MANAGERS Josh Hyland josh.hyland@outlookpublishing.com Lewis Bush lewis.bush@outlookpublishing.com Sam Love sam.love@outlookpublishing.com Vivek Valmiki vivek.valmiki@outlookpublishing.com BUSINESS TRAVEL GUIDES Director: Joe Palliser joe.palliser@outlookpublishing.com Jordan Levey jordan.levey@outlookpublishing.com Krisha Canlas krisha.canlas@outlookpublishing.com Matt Cole-Wilkin matt.cole-wilkin@outlookpublishing.com ADMINISTRATION Finance Director: Suzanne Welsh suzanne.welsh@outlookpublishing.com Administrative Assistant: Sophia Curran sophia.curran@outlookpublishing.com Office Manager: Daniel George daniel.george@outlookpublishing.com CONTACT Africa Outlook East Wing, Ground Floor, 69-75 Thorpe Road, Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 1UA, United Kingdom.

Sales: +44 (0) 1603 959 652 Editorial: +44 (0) 1603 959 657 SUBSCRIPTIONS Tel: +44 (0) 1603 959 657 Email: tom.wadlow@outlookpublishing.com www.africaoutlookmag.com Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/africaoutlook Follow us on Twitter: @africa_outlook

AFRICA

Finance of the Future Insurance is an important pillar of any advanced financial ecosystem.

In Mauritius, officially ranked the easiest place to do business in Sub-Saharan Africa, the sector is helping provide peace of mind to consumers and business alike, and a key facilitator is Guardrisk.

With its parent company in South Africa, the Mauritius division is moving from strength to strength in the cell captive insurance and resinsurance segment, a journey which is helping to propel the country up the global ease of doing business ranks (it now sits in 20th).

“We are in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing economies in SubSaharan Africa and the country’s business environment and investment climate has also made it one of the most business-friendly destinations in the region,” Vikram Ramlochun, Managing Director, tell us.

“Furthermore, Mauritius has emerged as an important platform between Asia, the Middle East and Africa for investment into the African subcontinent.

The financial services sector, including the insurance industry, is an important economic pillar of the Mauritian economy and the insurance industry’s contribution to GDP is about three percent.”

Continuing our focus on insurance is an exclusive interview with Hollard Ghana’s CEO Patience Akyianu, who details the rapid rise of the sector in the country, especially in the area of life insurance which is growing at 25 percent a year.

Also operating in the financial arena is DPO Group, the largest pan-African payment services provider. We put our questions to Co-Founder and Chairman Offer Gat about his company’s journey and the importance of an advanced payments infrastructure in driving economic development.

Other industry insights cover the likes of construction, retail, food and drink, supply chain and manufacturing activities, while this month’s Expert Eye comes from Prof Lucille Blumberg and Dr Kerrigan McCarthy of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Staying in South Africa, we explore the country’s growing MICE tourism potential via a Q&A with the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI). Having spoken with the organisation in 2018, here we catch up with Kim Roberts, Vice-Chairperson of SAACI, to get the latest insight on South African tourism, as well as some detail on what SAACI has planned for the year ahead.

Our other business travel guide dives into Liberia, in particular its vibrant capital city Monrovia, to explore what is on offer for leisure and business travellers.

Tom Wadlow Editorial Director, Outlook Publishing

Enjoy the issue!

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In this issue...

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NEWS

Around Africa in seven stories

SHOWCASING LEADING COMPANIES Tell us your story and we’ll tell the world

EXPERT EYE

Is South Africa meeting the challenge of epidemic infectious disease outbreaks?

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FINANCE Fluid Finance

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ECONOMY The Continent’s Employment Conundrum

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A Q&A with DPO Group, the largest pan-African payment service provider

The African Development Bank on the region’s rapidly growing labour force

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GUARDRISK GROUP MAURITIUS A Captive Market Safeguarding the future of businesses across the subcontinent

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HOLLARD GHANA Insurance Inspired

Leading the national indemnity revolution

CONSTRUCTION

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STEFANUTTI STOCKS Standing Strong

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METROPOLE ARCHITECTS Building Made Bold

TOPICAL FOCUS

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South Africa’s multidisciplinary construction custodian

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES Turning the Tide An interview with Clare Gomes, President of WISTA South Africa

BUSINESS TRAVEL

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SOUTH AFRICA

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LIBERIA

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An insight from the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry Africa’s oldest republic, reinvigorated

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Bringing dynamic design to the global stage

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HITACHI CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY ZAMBIA Keeping Zambia Building

Providing South Africa’s railway industry with engineering expertise since 2004

Ensuring the supply of reliable machinery to projects nationwide

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A champion of social enablement and industry optimism

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JAVA HOUSE A Tale of Transformation

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SAFARICOM Transforming Lives

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SOUTHERN OIL The Canola Curator Creating products for the conscious consumer

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Catalysing Kenya’s socioeconomic development

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FIREMOUNT GROUP The Denim Difference

Driving economic diversification through tasteful, tailor-made textiles

AFRICA IMPROVED FOODS Nourishing Nations

Overcoming malnutrition with foods made from locally grown maize

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TANZANIA INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINAL SERVICES The Gateway to East, Central and Southern Africa Standing strong as the nation’s leading specialised container terminal

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CITYDIA GHANA Growing for Ghana

Empowering communities through responsible retail

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AFRICA MINING SUMMIT

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POWER NIGERIA EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE

A platform for authentic conversation on African mining

Lagos gears up for eighth edition of popular power event

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NIGERIA MINING WEEK

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AFRICA AGTECH EXPO AND FORUM

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INTERNATIONAL MINING AND RESOURCES CONFERENCE (IMARC)

F O O D & D R I N K

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ST LOUIS PETROLEUM Futureproofing Ghana’s Fuel

E V E N T T E C H N O L O G Y

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Building up storage and skills across Ghana’s oil industry

Consolidating and internationalising East Africa’s largest coffeehouse chain

dhk ARCHITECTS Driven by Design

NALEDI RAILWAY ENGINEERING Keeping SA on Track

Sharing best practice in the region’s mining industry

Hosting the region’s leading agribusiness and technology providers

Where global mining leaders connect with technology, finance and the future

THE FINAL WORD

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What technology is helping to transform your industry and how?

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Around Africa in seven stories…

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GOVERNMENT

Mozambique claims promising progress in IMF talks

Vodacom eyes $589 million investment into SA network Andries Delport, Chief Technology Officer of South Africa’s Vodacom, has said the company will invest $589 million into the country’s telecoms infrastructure.

Much of the funding will go into improving connectivity in rural areas, building on 4G rollout progress which now covers 75 percent of the population living in these areas. Its 3G coverage is at 97 percent of the

rural populace.

This announcement comes as Vodacom became the South African Telco to feature in the top 25 of Fortune’s 2019 “Change the World” list, which showcases the top 52 global companies that have made an important social or environmental impact through their profit-making strategy and operations.

MINING

Barrick Gold weighs up sale of Tongon Gold mine The world’s largest gold mining company, Barrick Gold, is considering selling its Tongon gold mine in the Ivory Coast, according to reports from Bloomberg.

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Filipe Nyusi, Mozambique’s President, has reported encouraging developments in talks with the International Monetary Fund as the country seeks to regain access to international finance.

Nyusi told Reuters at a RussianMozambican Business Forum in Moscow: “We want to establish a good relationship with our partners from financial institutions so that we can continue to access financial resources, and we are doing this with our partner the IMF, and they understand us.”

The IMF is paying quarterly visits to Mozambique as the two parties look to rebuild trust in the country’s economic system. This follows a debt crisis in 2016 when Mozambique admitted to $1.4 billion of undisclosed lending.

It is thought to be working with the Bank of Nova Scotia to find a suitable buyer for the asset after it bought Randgold Resources.

Located nearly 700 kilometres north of Abidjan, the Tongon mine is 90 percent owned by Barrick, the Ivorian government and local investors holding the remaining 10 percent share. It is on track to produce around 270,000 ounces of gold this year.

GO TO WWW.AFRICAOUTLOOKMAG.COM/NEWS FOR ALL OF THE LATEST NEWS FROM AFRICA

FINANCE

CONSTRUCTION

China to back $300 million industrial park in Adama, Ethiopia

Egyptian digital payments firm Fawry witnessed an oversubscribed initial public offering on the country’s stock exchange which saw its share price rise by 29 percent.

The company listed 36 percent of its share capital at a price of 6.46 Egyptian pounds ($0.39), an oversubscription of 30.3 times which saw its share price hit 8.33 Egyptian pounds ($0.50) at close of business on Thursday August 8.

Fawry is an electronic payment network that offers financial services

Ethiopia and China are to collaborate on a 100-hectare industrial park in the city of Adama, Chinese news agency Xinhua has reported.

Costing $300 million, the project is predicted to create 25,000 jobs in and around the city, which is located 100 kilometres southeast of Addis Ababa.

Much of the activity at the site will focus on equipment manufacturing, while the park will be the second Chinese-backed venture in the city, the first industrial zone being opened in October 2018 and costing around $146 million to build.

ENERGY & UTILITIES

Ethiopia-Djibouti Road Transport Corridor Project receives funding boost The government of Ethiopia and the African Development Bank Group have signed a $98 million grant agreement to help finance phase one of the Ethiopia–Djibouti Road Transport Corridor Project.

Kicking off in 2020, the project

to consumers and businesses through more than 105,000 locations and a range of channels, including mobile wallets, retail outlets, online and ATMs. Its network of retailers includes pharmacies, stationary shops, post offices and food and drink stores. consists of the construction of the first 60 kilometres of a four-lane expressway section of the new 126-kilometre stretch from Adama to Awash, and includes the design of a one-stop border post at Dewele.

The expressway is expected to improve access to markets for farmers and rural communities. Other beneficiaries include some 3,000 truckdrivers who work the 900-kilometre route between Djibouti and Addis Ababa, and youths, who will receive over 95 percent of the job opportunities during the construction phase.

PHOTO BY JOE CASTLEMAN (GYROFROG) - OWN WORK, CC BY-SA 3.0

Egypt’s Fawry sees share price jump following IPO

AUTOMOTIVE

Tax break lure for automakers setting up in Ghana The Ghanaian government has said it will offer tax relief for up to 10 years to automotive companies that set up manufacturing facilities in the country.

This comes after Volkswagen and Nissan agreed to set up assembly plants if they were offered an incentive plan, with Renault also signalling that it would establish a facility.

South Africa has adopted a similar approach, a move which has seen the likes of Renault, Nissan and Toyota move in, with Ghana only offering the full 10 years to those companies making entire vehicles in the country.

GO TO WWW.AFRICAOUTLOOKMAG.COM/NEWS FOR ALL OF THE LATEST NEWS FROM AFRICA

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Is South Africa meeting the challenge of epidemic infectious disease outbreaks?

Prof Lucille Blumberg and Dr Kerrigan McCarthy of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases on what the country’s healthcare sector is doing to reduce the devastating impacts of infectious disease Written by: Prof Lucille Blumberg and Dr Kerrigan McCarthy

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utbreaks of infectious disease have immense potential for loss of life and livelihood, and can lead to fear, panic and irrational, unsafe behaviour amongst the public.

For these reasons, it is essential that all countries have structures in place to prevent, detect and respond to infectious diseases that have outbreak potential. South Africa has such structures in place. The Lujo outbreak in 2008 is a good example of how healthcare services worked together to detect, identify and contain a previously unknown virus imported from Lusaka, Zambia.

In September 2008 a resident of Lusaka was transferred for intensive medical care to a private health care facility in Johannesburg with a clinical diagnosis of tick bite fever. The patient died within 48 hours without a confirmed diagnosis.

Two weeks later, the paramedic who had accompanied the patient on the mercy flight became ill and was admitted to the same hospital with symptoms of a viral haemorrhagic fever. The connection between the two patients was recognised by the attending physician. As soon as viral haemorrhagic fever was suspected, contacts of the two patients were identified, and high-level infection prevention and control measures were

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ABOUT THE EXPERTS Prof Lucille Blumberg is the Deputy Director of Epidemiology and the Founding Head of the Division of Public Health Surveillance and Response. She is currently a medical consultant to the Division for Outbreak Preparedness and Response and is a medical consultant to the Centre for Emerging, Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases where her major focus is on malaria, rabies and zoonotic diseases. She is a member of the South African Expert Advisory Groups as well as the advisory groups to the World Health Organization.

Dr Kerrigan McCarthy is the Head of the Division of Public Health, Surveillance and Response, where her responsibilities include oversight of the Outbreak Response Unit, Notifiable Medical Conditions and GERMS-SA surveillance. She is a clinical microbiologist who graduated with MBBCh and FCPath (Micro) from the University of the Witwatersrand.

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implemented at the hospital.

Over the next few days, three people who had been in contact with the patients and who had developed symptoms were identified, admitted, isolated and provided with supportive care. The paramedic and two of the identified contacts subsequently died.

A single patient survived following intensive care and treatment with an investigational drug. No further cases were identified, most likely due to the intensive adherence to infection prevention and control practices.

On suspicion of viral haemorrhagic fever, tests were conducted at the high-level biosafety containment laboratory at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). This is an important national resource that has provided advanced diagnostics for high-consequence pathogens since 1980s. Initial tests for all known viral haemorrhagic fevers were negative, and only subsequently, the NICD together with the USA Centres for Disease Control identified a completely new pathogen – previously unknown globally. It was named ‘Lujo’ virus for Lusaka and Johannesburg.

These events around this outbreak, and many others of lesser consequence, illustrate the fundamental principles and successful application of interventions to detect, respond to and prevent further spread

of dangerous pathogens. South Africa has maintained and is expanding our capacity to respond to disease outbreaks through multisectoral, transdisciplinary structures.

Key preventive strategies for communicable disease include a robust policy framework for financing and co-ordinating communicable disease responses, access to safe water, food safety, adherence to national vaccination schedules, antimicrobial custodianship to prevent the emergence of antimicrobial resistance and implementation of adequate biosafety and biosecurity measures.

Surveillance is essential to monitor trends in disease occurrence, monitor the impact of interventions such as vaccinations and early diagnosis and treatment, and to detect cases of disease not usually present in our country. Healthcare workers, the public sector, the NICD with the

National Health Laboratory Service and private laboratories co-operate to conduct surveillance for communicable diseases. Surveillance data is collected through the notifiable medical conditions (NMC) surveillance system, laboratory-based surveillance (GERMSSA), syndromic disease surveillance and disease-specific surveillance programmes such as the ‘viral watch’ programme for influenza.

Multisectoral outbreak response teams exist at every level of government in district, provincial and national departments of health.

These teams facilitate co-ordination of role-players during outbreaks and include the private sector, health promotion, communications, pharmaceutical services, diseasespecific programmes, immunisation services, emergency medical services, school health programmes, police and military, disaster medicine response,

civil aviation, port health and veterinary public health.

The NICD is responsible for a ‘Public Health Emergency Operations Centre’ which is activated on declaration of a national or international public health event. Trained staff ensure that all aspects of emergency response including communications, disease surveillance, laboratory services, disease control interventions, human resources, logistics and financing are effectively coordinated to contain disease outbreaks and prevent further cases.

Ongoing development in South Africa in the field of outbreak detection, prevention and response is anticipated as our country refines its response structures in line with the requirements of the International Health Regulations (2005).

For further information, refer to the website of the NICD (www.nicd.ac.za) or email outbreak@nicd.ac.za

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G R O U P

Fluid Finance Offer Gat, Co-Founder and Chairman of DPO Group, the largest pan-African payment service provider, explains his passion for empowering enterprises through ever-advancing technology Writer: Tom Wadlow

Throughout my career, I have been focussed on value creation and believe that the most effective way businesses can create value in society, especially in emerging markets, is through offering increased employment and training opportunities and providing young people with the tools to succeed.

Finding sustainable ways to help businesses grow is what drives me to this day.”

Offer Gat

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For Offer Gat, career fulfilment is about more than running his own successful enterprise.

Impassioned by the ability of his company to empower tens of thousands of businesses across Africa to trade more easily, the Co-Founder and Chairman of payment specialist DPO Group is as motivated today as he was 13 years ago when first setting up.

The rapid advance of technology, an increasingly aware consumer base and growing corporate interest in Africa’s payments space have brought the region to what Gat sees as a transformational tipping point.

In the following Q&A, he gives his take on the ever-evolving payments industry and what DPO Group is doing to open up opportunities for 100,000-plus enterprises.

Africa Outlook (AfO): Why did you decide to create DPO Group in 2006?

Offer Gat (OG): I co-founded DPO Group in 2006 along with current DPO CEO, Eran Feinstein, in response to a gap that we identified in the African payments market. At

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that time, online payments were being widely used elsewhere in the world and ecommerce was booming, but in many parts of Africa paying online wasn’t an option.

While East Africa is known today as a leader in mobile money, there wasn’t much broad knowledge then around online payments and there was a sense of mistrust about paying an African company through an online platform.

However, the need was there, especially amongst small businesses. Eran was approached by a Kenyan airline who needed the technology to be able to process bookings online from their overseas visitors, and when we found that local banks weren’t able to offer this service, we decided to develop the technology ourselves.

Now, 13 years on, we operate in 18 countries across Africa enabling 100,000 businesses to make and receive secure payments, and to grow their businesses through ecommerce. This achievement represents much more than just business success, it also has a significant impact on the African economy, connecting African businesses on a panAfrican and global level, enabling them to develop much faster.

AfO: What is your take on the continent’s payments scene at the moment? What, in your opinion, are some of the challenges and opportunities facing companies such as yours?

OG: In terms of opportunities, we’re currently seeing a marked increase in M&A activity in the global payments sector, as well as continued home grown African fintech innovation.

It’s worth remembering that during 2018 alone there were 20 million new unique mobile subscribers in Sub-Saharan Africa, bringing the total to 456 million. 23 percent of the population access the internet via mobile regularly and the subscriber penetration rate is still only 44 percent.

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As digital technology is embraced further, we expect to see more and more collaborations between key players in the payments sector and those in the banking sector as they continue to provide levels of innovation that customers expect.

There is no doubt that technology will continue to disrupt and evolve the way we pay and how payments are accepted, in Africa in particular, so we’re very excited about how this will enable more people to be financially included and the positive effect this will have on economic growth.

The main challenge affecting the payments sector in Africa is the lack of consistent digital infrastructure on the continent. However, in the long term I’m optimistic. Cellular operators are beginning to take steps to improve their networks. In fact, according to the latest GSMA Report, mobile operators in Sub-Saharan Africa will invest $60 billion in their networks by 2025. I also hope to see governments across the continent beginning to invest directly and indirectly in infrastructure. Further investment into reliable digital infrastructure has the potential to revolutionise the African payments sector and strengthen economies.

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million Number of mobile money subscribers by 2025

1.104 billion

Number of SIM connections by 2025

500,000 Number of jobs formally supported by mobile ecosystem in 2018

$185 million Mobile industry contribution to GDP in 2023

$51 billion Revenue generated by mobile money operators in 2025

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AfO: I see that the acquisition of PayFast has taken your footprint to over 100,000 merchants. What are your ultimate goals regarding the growth and reach of DPO Group?

OG: The demand for secure, reliable and effective payment processing in Africa has grown rapidly and continues to grow. Since our inception in 2006, we’ve gone from a two-man operation to a pan-African payments service provider with over 300 employees with a local presence in 18 countries across East, West and Southern Africa, and we plan to continue our expansion into Francophone West Africa. Our medium-term goal is to be present in 28 African countries in the next two years, but ultimately, to be present everywhere on the continent, enabling online payments to merchants of all sizes.

AfO: How do you plan to achieve these objectives?

OG: Our aim is to continue to innovate and develop the range of services available to our merchants to ensure that we are a step ahead of ecommerce trends. To do this we invest time and energy into attracting the right human talent into the business and nurturing that talent.

Hiring and training local teams to international standards is key to our growth strategy as we often hire in countries where knowledge of payments is in its infancy.

We believe that people are our most important asset, and we invest a lot of time and resources into training and developing our employees.

The recent introduction of our Employee Stock Option Programme is testimony to how important we believe it is to nurture and retain our talent. We have also grown through strategic acquisition – prior to July’s announcement of our purchase of PayFast, we acquired PayGate, VCS, Paythru and SiD (all since 2016), and acquisitions will continue to be a

DumaCard, recently launched by DPO Group, is a businessto-business payment card and is the first of its kind in Africa.

Available to 10,000 businesses in Kenya and Tanzania, the company aims to roll it out to all of its markets.

In the future, consumers will be able to use DumaCard to make and receive payments for things like household bills and subscriptions.

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AfO: What more needs to be done to improve cross-border payments and monetary transfers around the continent?

OG: As previously mentioned, the lack of a reliable payments infrastructure across the continent is a major challenge for the payments industry to overcome. Another is the existing restrictions in many African countries on inflow and outflow of foreign currency, which we hope to see eased in time.

strategic part of our growth plan and evidence of our commitment to developing payment solutions for Africans.

payments via mobile, which has been particularly useful for SMEs looking to reach new markets with their products and services.

A fluid and easy payments process AfO: How important, generally, is is essential in order to facilitate a fluid payments sector/process to ecommerce opportunities and thus driving economic development across economic growth and, in fact, by Africa? providing the same access to payment OG: According to the World Bank, services it levels the playing field over half the Sub-Saharan population is between small and large businesses. unbanked, i.e. doesn’t hold an account But even more important than at a bank or other financial institution, speed and ease of making payments and this lack of access to finance is a online is the need for security. This is major factor holding back economic our number one priority. DPO holds development. The introduction of PCI DSS Level 1 Certification, the mobile money transfer services, highest level of certification as set out such as M-PESA, has completely by the industry standards, in each of changed the picture. A quarter of our the countries in which it operates. And transactions out of South Africa are we use a highly sophisticated fraud now made via mobile money and we’re prevention and risk management the only payment service provider system developed in-house and currently offering cross border managed around the clock.

AfO: Are you optimistic for the future development and roll out of payment solutions across the continent and the role this can play in developing the economies and societies of African nations?

OG: Absolutely. Payments solutions have the capacity to transform the African economy, as has been the case in other parts of the world. Payment processing technology allows millions of businesses the chance to expand their sales substantially, including transacting across borders, opening up new commercial possibilities for businesses and individuals.

I would go so far as to say that a well-developed payments system is critical to economic development.

According to the World Payments Report 2018, by 2021 non-cash transactions in emerging markets, currently growing at three times the rate of mature markets, will account for nearly half of global non-cash transaction volumes. So, expanding a nation’s wealth and enabling people to prosper cannot happen without a sophisticated and secure payments system.

www.directpay.online

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Employment Conundrum Delving into the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2019 report and its analysis on the region’s rapidly growing labour force Writer: Jonathan Dyble

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uch has been said about the booming prospects of Africa. From the buoyant GDP growth rates of Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Rwanda and Senegal, all set surpass seven percent this year, to the continent’s thriving mobile economy that is eluded to in the previous article, there is great anticipation surrounding the region’s ascending trajectory.

Accompanying such swathes of development and prosperity, however, will be an unprecedented population boom.

According to the UN, the continent will become the home of 2.4 billion people by 2050, up from the estimated 1.3 billion that currently live there.

Meanwhile, between now and 2100, more than half of the world’s population growth is expected to

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The African Economic Outlook 2019 report, published by the African Development Bank

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come from Africa, its total populous forecast to rise to 4.1 billion and represent over a third of the world’s entire inhabitants.

As you might expect, this will be accompanied by a series of challenges related to employment – challenges highlighted in the African Economic Outlook 2019 report, published by the African Development Bank.

According to this analysis, Africa’s labour force will be nearly 40 percent larger by 2030.

Yet, if current trends continue, only half of these new workers will be able to find employment, while the vast majority of those who are successful will likely only find jobs in the informal sector.

Looking at the figures, this could be close to 100 million young people without jobs.

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SEVEN KEY TAKEAWAYS Listed below are some key messages from the ‘Jobs, Growth and Firm Dynamism’ section in the African Development Bank’s African Economic Outlook 2019 report: • Africa’s labour force is projected to be nearly 40 percent larger by 2030.

• The rapid growth achieved in Africa in the past two decades has not been proemployment.

• African economies have prematurely deindustrialised as the reallocation of labour has tilted toward services, limiting the growth potential of the manufacturing sector.

• Key factors impeding industrialisation, particularly manufacturing growth, are limited firm dynamism.

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Against this backdrop, where the working adult population is projected to increase from 705 million (as recorded in 2018) to one billion by 2030, increasing pressure will be placed on generating sustainable employment opportunities.

“A one percent increase in GDP growth between 2000 and 2014 was associated with only 0.41 percent growth in employment, meaning that employment was expanding at a rate of less than 1.8 percent a year, or far below the nearly three percent annual growth in the labour force,” the report reveals.

Informal employment is a major hurdle that needs to be overcome in order to tackle this.

Africa has the highest rate of informality in the world, a segment that is renowned for lower wages and living standards. It is no coincidence that 82 percent of African workers are considered poor, compared to the global average of 39 percent, with informality as high as 90 percent in some countries.

• Estimates from Enterprise Surveys show that between 1.3 and three million jobs are lost every year due to administrative hurdles, corruption, inadequate infrastructure, poor tax administration, and other red tape.

• Small and medium firms have had very little chance of growing into large firms.

• Reviving Africa’s industrialisation requires a commitment to improve the climate that supports firm growth.

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According to the African Development Bank, certain sectors will be crucial in changing the existing employment structure, ensuring it becomes more sustainable in the long term. Manufacturing is one such sector, described as an industry that exhibits unconditional labour productivity convergence, standing as a powerful driver of aggregate income convergence.

“Manufacturing-driven growth acceleration episodes increased total employment growth considerably and had stronger effects on employment elasticities, boosting employment

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elasticity by about 0.017 percentage point (or by three percent) – three times higher than effects of servicesdriven episodes,” the report continues.

“Moreover, manufacturing-driven growth acceleration episodes have larger cross-sector effects – 0.034 percentage point higher growth elasticities of employment for manufacturing, 0.038 for services, 0.022 for agriculture, and 0.053 for mining.”

Such episodes therefore generate positive structural change in regard to employment across Africa. In turn, this points to industrialisation as key to solving the continent’s employment conundrum, owed to its ability to create reliable, sustainable jobs at scale, stimulate innovation and enhance productivity and quality.

Figures 2.1 and 2.8 accredited to the African Development Bank Group’s African Economic Outlook 2019 report

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There is another layer of challenges in achieving industrialisation acceleration, however, due to the lack of sizable firms capable of motivating such change.

The African business landscape is currently dominated by small businesses and a shortage of medium and large companies, and many of these smaller companies are more concerned with survival and growth rather than investing heavily in operational transformation.

“More than 40 percent of African firms have fewer than 10 employees and 60 percent have fewer than 20,” the report shows.

“Currently, 55 percent of firms are small, 30 percent are medium, and 15 percent are large.”

This structure points to a lack of firm dynamism in Africa, with the dominance of small firms driving down aggregate productivity, preventing companies from creating enough high-quality jobs for the growing labour force.

“More needs to be done to encourage large companies to set up businesses in Africa and to help small firms grow by removing constraints such as poor infrastructure, political instability, and corruption,” the report reads.

“Identifying and building the necessary clusters at the right scale also might help firm growth. This implies a concerted industrialisation effort that builds on countries’ comparative advantage in Africa’s manufacturing sector.”

In the eyes of the African Development Bank, the aforementioned should be a top priority for policymakers in addressing and dealing with the rapid growth of Africa’s labour force.

It adds: “While striving to exit the informality trap, countries need to protect vulnerable workers without making the labour market too rigid. Incentives should encourage informal firms to formalise. And structural transformation needs to be advanced through steady and rapid industrialisation that moves labour from low- to high-productivity sectors and ultimately creates more highquality jobs.”

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here are 1.2 million seafaring workers in the world, and just one in 50 of them are women.

From fishing vessels to freighter ships, the oceans have been a vital source of economic activity and employment for many centuries, their position within a global multimodal network of transport still critical today.

However, given how entrenched maritime activity has become in modern society, it is somewhat alarming to discover that 98 percent of seafarers are male. The on-shore situation is not quite as stark, but even here just a third of land-based maritime workers are women.

Times have moved on since the days when women were banned from sailing on merchant and military vessels (their presence believed to have angered the

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the Tide The Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association is working to address the gender imbalance of a historically male-dominated industry. Clare Gomes, President of the South Africa chapter, tells us more Writer: Tom Wadlow

AN INTERNATIONAL VIEW PART ONE Despina Theodossiou is President of WISTA International, this having established the Cypriot branch of the organisation, joining together with other women in the industry who wanted to build a networking platform. We asked her some quickfire questions…

What do you want to achieve with the association?

“Firstly, I want to grow WISTA geographically. As a global association, our leverage is in our multi-culturalism and different countries and regions bring different points of view and strengths to the table. During my tenure we have expanded in South America, Asia and Africa.

“Secondly, I want stronger collaborations with other organisations, and of course, for the discussion to be more than diversity per se – WISTA is looking into issues that are currently important to maritime industries, like the advent of new technologies.

“My ultimate vision? To mainstream the issue of diversity in our industry.

We have an industry of opportunity in a time of change, and WISTA’s voice will be there, as a valued industry body.”

What is the organisation’s footprint like in Africa?

“There are currently four national WISTA Associations in Africa – Ghana, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa. We are currently working on a few more and we hope that soon they will come to fruition. It is certainly one of my goals to grow our membership in Africa as there is a lot of opportunity and many educated, senior level women who can be role models and trailblazers for younger women in the industry.”

sea gods), but the gender imbalance in today’s seafaring economy appears to be lagging significantly behind.

In Africa the situation is no different, and it is for this reason that Clare Gomes got involved with the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA International) in the early 2000s.

A background in publishing led her to join marine solutions provider Pentow Marine in Cape Town in 1999 as a public relations officer, the nature of the role allowing her to dive straight into the nuances of the industry because of the need for crisis communications during salvage and emergency operations.

Last year she became President of the South African branch of WISTA. “Together with other industry roleplayers, I was involved with WISTA when it was active in South Africa in the early 2000s,” Gomes recalls. “In 2018 I was struck by the need for a professional association for women in business in the maritime industry in South Africa, against the backdrop of rising dialogue globally about inclusivity in the sector.

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“I also noticed that the world map on the WISTA website was empty in the Southern African region – and that had to change given the depth of talented women in the industry here.

I am a strong implementer and like to turn ideas into reality, so invested the effort to do just that. We now have an active WISTA South Africa chapter in Cape Town.”

Gomes is quick to praise the talented team of professional women who are working tirelessly to strengthen the WISTA South Africa network, which is also about optimising opportunities for the economic growth of the country’s maritime industry.

Clare Gomes with Lawhill Maritime Centre learners

AN INTERNATIONAL VIEW PART TWO Despina Theodossiou continues to answer our questions…

How can more women be encouraged to pursue a maritime career?

“Shipping has historically been a male-dominated field, but this is slowly changing. Women are not only working in the industry, they are moving up the ranks and are role models for younger women who are looking to shipping as a career choice.

It is certainly not easy, and it is true that women still do not have the same opportunities as men. The new roles emerging in the industry and the latest technologies present an opportunity for women, and we should make sure we are embracing these and promoting them. WISTA is a part of this change, and we give our members the chance to create business relationships, to network and learn.”

Are you optimistic for the future of the industry and the role women can play in developing it?

“I am. There are challenges for sure, but shipping is centuries old and it is a sector that the world economy heavily relies on. It is dependable and beneficial to consumers as it is more cost efficient compared to other modes of transport. Vessel connectivity has progressed to such an extent that now the ship is considered an extension of the shore office with all the opportunities that this can offer.

“You ask the role that women can play, but I will answer about the role that all people – equally and fairly – can play. Diversity brings innovation.

The maritime sector is always changing, therefore we must build opportunities for diversity and inclusion, for professional development moving forward. These are powerful tools which support the emergence of new ideas focused on a positive future for our industry.”

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Indeed, it is a journey which is already picking up the pace.

“My personal intent is to establish WISTA South Africa with a strong foundation and ensure that it is sustainable for future maritime leaders to drive and develop, supporting inclusivity in the workplace,” Gomes adds.

“And I really want women to make strong connections as a result of WISTA South Africa networking and grow their businesses, impacting job creation and sustainability of the sector. It is starting to gain momentum, and that is very exciting.”

Building on progress

Despite the striking figures cited at the beginning, Gomes has observed an uplift in the number of women in management and leadership positions during her time in the maritime sector.

While the overall number of women working in the industry remains low, she has noticed female professionals making an impact across all subsectors, as well as an emergence of womenowned shipping enterprises in niche areas like offshore bunkering.

From port managers, ship’s agents and maritime lawyers to surveyors, fuel

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brokers and ship auctioneers, women are contributing to a huge range of roles across this multifaceted trade.

The next step is to build on this foundation and encourage more females into the shipping and maritime profession.

Asked how this can be achieved, Gomes responds: “Firstly, I think we need to be realistic when we communicate about the challenges and opportunities of working in the maritime sector – at sea and ashore. We also need to expand the understanding of opportunities for rewarding careers in our sector which are ashore and not only at sea.

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In regard to the latter point, Gomes has been busy with WISTA on a number of programmes.

For example, the organisation has partnered with the South African International Maritime Institute and other stakeholders involved in the Women Dive In initiative, a campaign designed to create career awareness by engaging with students.

Additionally, Gomes herself stood on the panel of this year’s annual Day

of the Seafarer event, hosted by the International Maritime Organisation, with this year’s theme being ‘#IamOnBoard - with Gender Equality’.

WISTA is also in regular dialogue with the Department of Transport and will be an active participant in World Maritime Day events in September 2019, the theme for this year being Empowering Women in the Maritime Community.

These evolving trends and activities leave Gomes optimistic about the wider development of South Africa’s shipping industry.

Summing up her thoughts on the future state of the profession, she concludes:

The International Maritime Organisation also supports equality in the maritime industry through its annual Day of the Seafarer. Clare Gomes is pictured above (third from the left) who stood as one of the panelists for the 2019 edition

“And then we need to encourage women to join us in this space and share their skills and competencies with our sector, which needs the innovation, entrepreneurial thinking and norm-challenging approach of younger generations. If we highlight role models of both genders in our sector – leaders who inspire excellence and can paint a clear vision for the future – it will become an attractive career option, with many ways to come onboard.

“We also need to invest time as professional women of influence in our respective organisations to ensure that workplace policies and practices support inclusivity. This is a very important part of creating a conducive environment.”

“There are economic challenges our country and sector face, but I am also confident about the many factors that see South Africa uniquely positioned (geographically, regionally and internationally) to benefit from significant regional economic growth as a result of LNG in Mozambique, offshore exploration and other potential prospects.

“I think that women can drive the connections required for different companies and organisations – both public and private – to work together to take advantage of this potential growth. And it is exciting that we have a growing WISTA footprint in Africa, and the wisdom of well-established chapters in Ghana and Nigeria to tap in to.”

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SOUTH Visitors at the bronze statue of Nelson Mandela in Bloemfontein

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outh Africa’s natural beauty and cultural fascination is welldocumented, and rightly so.

The tumultuous apartheid period came to an end in the 1990s, and since then the country has opened itself to the world both in terms of leisure and business tourism.

Major cities and MICE hubs are spread far and wide, some being thousands of miles from key settlements in other African countries.

Another nuance of South Africa’s formation is the fact it has not one, but three recognised capitals – Pretoria is home to the country’s executive, Cape Town its legislature and Bloemfontein the judiciary.

Such is the nation’s growing standing on the global stage, it is one of few countries to host multiple sporting world cups. In 2010 it became the first African host of the FIFA World Cup, while it has also hosted the Rugby Union World Cup (1995) and in 2003 staged the vast majority of matches in

As well as being famed as a place of natural beauty, South Africa has plenty to offer to the realm of business travel and MICE tourism

FACTS & FIGURES

Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Joe Palliser the ICC Cricket World Cup. South Africa also comes into its own in terms of its hugely varied and extraordinary terrain. From the enormous Blyde River Canyon to Table Mountain and dramatic coastal roads to the Karoo and Kalahari deserts, this is an outdoor lover’s paradise, the perfect backdrop for businesses to host meetings, events and conferences.

Throw in a largely comfortable temperate climate that sees plenty of sunshine, and you will find the complete tourist package.

Capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein Number of official languages: 11 Area: 1,220,813 km2 Population (2017): 56,875,000 GDP (2017): $349.4 billion Currency: Rand (R) Time zone: South Africa Standard Time (GMT+2) Dialling code: +27 Internet TLD: .za Climate: Temperate

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A WORLD The first University built in the heart of Johannesburg, home to over 75 multipurpose sports facilities and conference venues, under the Wits Sport banner, within a 400 acre area spanning across Braamfontein and Parktown The Wits Sport Conference Centre and Venue Hire is the first conference centre aligned to a South African university to offer a wide and diverse range of services outside the core academic programme, that supplements and enhances the learning experience in collaboration with corporate and sporting South Africa.

Truly a place where academics, sport and business meet Conferences, Dinners, Meetings, Awards, Galas, Banqueting, Weddings Home to leading sporting facilities in a single expanse:

01 State of the artHockey astro

02 On campus Futsal courts

02 Olympic sized, heated swimming pools

03 Cricket stadia

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3000+ seater stadia

Gyms

Wits is the only official and first elite athlete friendly university in South Africa. Other universities have this in practice, Wits has it as part of policy.

The Wits Sport Conference Centre and Venue facilties can host up to 5000 guests, with events ranging from corporate events and family days to sports tournaments and international games, from teambuilding to skills development, coaching coaches, training teams, mentoring athletes, weddings, gala dinners, symposia and expos

Sports tournaments, League matches, Training & Conditioning, Coaching & Mentoring workshops

Wits is the first and only South African University in partnership with Gauteng Health in the hosting of the Annual World Heart Day Fun Run

OF FIRSTS #WIRSTS Bidvest Wits is the first and only university based football team to have won the South African Premier Soccer League (PSL) Wits is the first South African University to host a FIH Hockey World League event (Semi-Finals 2017) Wits is the first and only South African University to host the BRICS Games Wits hosted over 5000 students for the first time, including sports, catering and accommodation during the SA Schools Summer Games in 2018

Team building, Wellness events, Family fun days, Signature Runs/Walks & Community days

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Raikes Road (cnr Enoch Sontoga road) Sturrock Park - West campus +2711 717 9406/8/9 events.witssports@wits.ac.za www.wits.ac.za

Business strategy, Summits, Symposia, Expos and Trade shows

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The Business End

SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE

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andton Convention Centre (SCC) stands tall in Africa as a world-class eight-storey venue, featuring Afro-chic décor and 22,000 square metres of flexible multipurpose spaces and venues for any event, large or small.

The venue is in the heart of Sandton, ideally located in Johannesburg’s vibrant financial and commercial hub, within walking distance of Sandton Sun hotel and its San Restaurant and popular sundowner spot, San Deck Bar & Restaurant. The InterContinental Johannesburg Sandton Towers and Sandton City Garden Court, as well as upmarket shopping centres, restaurants and entertainment also situated in the same precinct.

Every year, SCC is host to a wide range of international and local conferences, expos, confexes, summits, and other business and trade events, as well as an exciting array of consumer events, such as Arnold Classic Sport Festival, Design Joburg, Joy of Jazz, WineX, Whisky & Gin Live, and many more.

THE TOURIST TRADE is gathering increasing momentum as South Africa seeks to make the most out of its formidable attractions.

In 2017, one in every 22 employed people in South Africa were working in the tourism sector, totalling 722,013 individuals, around 4.5 percent of the 16.2 million people making up the national workforce.

The tourism sector contributed 2.8 percent (or R130 billion) to South Africa’s GDP in 2017, making it larger than the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry.

According to Statistics South Africa, in 2017 visitors sent over half a million rand every minute, amounting to R277 billion for the entire year, the split being 56 percent domestic spend and 44 percent international.

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In terms of numbers arriving, 2018 saw 16.44 million visitors arrive in the country – this represents a steady rise over the past six years, the figure for 2012 being 14.16 million. The upward trajectory is set continue for the next few years according to the latest predictions from research organisation Statista, which forecasts some 19.6 million tourists to visit South Africa in 2023.

Away from tourism, foreign trade is another key contributor to the nation’s income, with China, the USA, Germany and Namibia alone accounting for more than a quarter of exports. Key export products include precious metals, agricultural goods and military equipment, while South Africa’s major imports include chemicals and motor vehicles.

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The elegant venue can host up to 10,0000 people at any one time in a variety of exhibition and conference venues. Every event can be tailormade to suit specific requirements, with an excellent range of services, amenities and facilities to cover all needs, whether for clients, organisers, exhibitors, or visitors.

SCC is renowned for its food and beverage services and wide range of menu options designed to suit any occasion, event and dietary requirement, and all palates.

SCC offers easy access to Gautrain Sandton Station, OR Tambo International Airport, and other key destinations, and is conveniently located for travellers to add leisure days onto their visits to explore the many tourism offerings in the city, Gauteng province, and the country.

T +27 (0)11 779 0000 E scc.reservations@tsogosun.com

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Southern African Association for the Conference Industry African countries require a link in the Middle East or Europe in order to then get to South Africa – this change will certainly aid in economic growth.

AfO: Why, in your opinion, should someone visit South Africa?

KR: It is the home of mankind, the real roots of the human race. One comes to South Africa and there is a spiritual connection with the land, along with its natural beauty, friendly people and sophisticated infrastructure.

Eastern Cape

FOUNDED IN 1987 by Nick Stathakis and Keith McCusker, the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry, better known as SAACI, is a governing body mandated to improve the standards in conference facilities, meeting venues and allied services within South Africa and the wider region.

It is a thought leadership pioneer in the MICE tourism space, hosting numerous events and conducting several projects (such as Project RISE) to raise the profile of southern Africa as a destination for business travel.

Having spoken with the organisation in 2018, here we catch up with Kim Roberts, Vice-Chairperson of SAACI, to get the latest insight on South African tourism, as well as some detail on what SAACI has planned for the year ahead.

Africa Outlook (AfO): How would you say South Africa has developed recently as a business travel hub and what are the key reasons behind its growing appeal?

Kim Roberts (KR): South Africa has worked really hard on its exposure

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to the international marketplace. The increase of international conventions coming into South Africa, as a result of stronger market positioning, has allowed for more feet on our shores.

The unique experiences on offer in South Africa, as well as the way we as a nation touch the hearts of those that visit these shores, almost always result in return business for both the business events and leisure sectors.

Increased accessibility into South Africa has improved with new airline routes being added. There is so much opportunity within Africa and we look forward to seeing those routes becoming less complicated. Many

Mpumalanga

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AfO: Are there any specific attractions, landmarks or places to eat and drink that you would recommend?

KR: I would have to say a visit to Maropeng. If I was a tour guide and could share my favourite places, the itinerary would cover a self-drive to Mpumalanga and include the Kruger National Park, the Eastern Cape wild shoreline, our winelands and the city of Cape Town. Not to forget that sunrise walk to the top of Lions Head.

With regards to eating and drinking, we have numerous fabulous restaurants and local beverages to enjoy, I would just say try something completely local or authentic, anywhere in South Africa.

Kruger National Park

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number of platforms. They apply this in their businesses, helping the tourism industry to grow.

AfO: How do you see the country developing as a business travel hub over the next year to two years?

KR: With our convention bureaus in place we continue to see growth in this space. These entities are highly focused on the Tourism Ministry’s mandate to drive economic growth and with that we are fortunate to see the growing numbers in events and expos.

There are always new facilities joining the South African meetings landscape. These properties will bring new and exciting spaces for delegates to enjoy.

“If I were a tour guide and could share my favourite places, the itinerary would cover a self-drive to Mpumalanga and include the Kruger National Park, the Eastern Cape wild shoreline, our winelands and the city of Cape Town” Cape Town

AfO: What are the best ways of getting around the country?

KR: As a first-time visitor we would encourage a registered guide to assist with your planning and even travel if possible. The local airlines are well established and can easily meet your destination needs. Gauteng has a world class rail infrastructure in the Gautrain, to get you into the City of Gold. There are options for taxis and buses, and we would just advise that they belong to recognised bodies. For experienced visitors to South Africa,

a self-drive option could make for the trip of a lifetime.

AfO: What trends are transforming the tourism industry in South Africa at present? How are you responding to these trends?

KR: Three I would identify are technology, sustainability and a focus on service excellence.

Our association stays abreast of what is happening internationally – and what works in South Africa – and shares this with members on a

AfO: Are there any plans or projects in the pipeline that you wish to highlight?

KR: We are busy with the roll out of the RISE project, a skills development programme to facilitate entry for new suppliers into the business events industry.

Having just had our 2019 congress, that had a very strong learning programme, we are already starting to work on 2020’s content and the framework of this event, to ensure we deliver as the lead in the conference industry.

Also, in the next three months, we will be holding a strategic meeting to focus on where and what our next priorities will be.

AfO: Are you optimistic about the future of the tourism industry in South Africa?

KR: Yes, you have to be. As someone recently shared with me, what you visualise you actualise.

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In Focus Convention centres in South Africa SOUTH AFRICA IS home to some of the region’s most impressive conferencing and event hosting facilities.

In the past the country has hosted global landmark events such as the 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban. In 2016, the same city hosted the 21st AIDS Conference at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre, a venue which housed 18,000 delegates from 183 countries.

Durban is not the only major city home to world-class exhibition facilities, however. Among the other highly rated venues are Sandton Convention Centre (Johannesburg), Tshwane Events Centre, East London

International Convention Centre, Cape Town International Convention Centre and CSIR International Convention Centre (Pretoria), to name but a few.

As well as SAACI, an important organisation helping to promote and assist convention centres and event organisers is the South Africa National Convention Centre (SANCB).

A one-stop solution for independent information and assistance, giving neutral advice on all aspects of hosting and organising any business event in South Africa, one of SANCB’s major roles is to help venues bid and prepare for hosting conventions.

In 2015, for example, South Africa hosted 140 international meetings and conferences at its various convention centres and event venues, attracting around 80,000 delegates and generating more than R1 billion in economic impact.

Sandton Convention Centre

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Outlook Recommends “Black-maned lions framed against Kalahari dunes; powdery beaches lapped by two oceans; star-studded desert skies; jagged, lush mountains – this truly is a country of astounding diversity” – Lonely Planet

MICE VENUES Wits University

BY SAMUELLA99 AT ENGLISH WIKIPEDIA, CC BY-SA 3.0

Based in Johannesburg, Wits University has developed a reputation for educational excellence, with more than 85 percent of its research published in accredited international journals.

The university offers several courses in the realm of tourism and hospitality and is an important feeder to many businesses operating in the MICE space. Further, the site is home to several events and conferencing venues, including the Great Hall, Linder Auditorium, Wits Club, Wits Theatre, WitsSport Venues, and the Professional Development Hub. The Great Hall in particular is a landmark venue, an iconic building on campus able to seat up to 1,035 people.

HOTELS & HOSPITALITY Sandton Convention Centre Situated in northern Johannesburg in the city’s financial district, Sandton Convention Centre is a leading multiuse events space provider. With 22,000 square metres of flexible event space, contemporary Afro-chic décor and technologically advanced facilities, the SCC is perfectly suited to hosting your event, whether it is a 10-person meeting or cocktail reception for 4,500 guests.

Lying just north of Sandton, the Indaba Hotel, Spa & Conference Centre provides a perfect blend of business functionality and a warm and relaxed atmosphere. The hotel features an impressive selection of 24 multipurpose conference venues that can accommodate up to 2,000 delegates, all set just 15 kilometres from Lanseria International Airport and within easy reach of OR Tambo.

Durban ICC

Umlilo Lodge, St Lucia

Cape Town International Convention Centre

The Oyster Box Ghost Mountain Inn

NATIONAL PARKS

FOOD & DRINK IN JOHANNESBURG

Kruger National Park

Mo-Zam-Bik Linksfield

Golden Gate Highlands National Park

Lucky Bean

Augrabies Falls National Park 32

Indaba Hotel, Spa & Conference Centre

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Urbanologi Momo Baohaus

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A Bryte light in your darkest hour.

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Transport Links

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of Mozambique present an alternative way of getting around, with car hire perhaps the obvious and most flexible option.

Regionally, South Africa offers some tremendous cycling opportunities.

Hills, views and campsites are in abundance, while bikes can be taken onto most trains. Local bus networks

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PHOTO: PASCAL KOBEH

SOUTH AFRICA IS home to a number of budget airlines such as CemAir, Kulula, Mango and FlySafair that serve most domestic routes at competitive prices. It is an easy way of getting from one major destination to another, especially given the long distances between some of the major cities.

Shosholoza Meyl offers regular train services, including a popular overnight journey between Cape Town and Johannesburg that allows passengers to take in the vastness of the country’s landscapes.

Travel by boat between the coastal settlements of Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Durban and onto the likes

are extensive and usually cheap to use.

In terms of international air travel, OR Tambo near Johannesburg is the major hub, with other significant airports to be found in Cape Town and Durban. National carrier South African Airways operates an extensive network of long-haul flights to destinations all over the world.

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Landmark Attractions

PHOTO BY DIDIER B (SAM67FR) CC BY 2.5

“Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is acclaimed as one of the great botanic gardens of the world. Few gardens can match the sheer grandeur of the setting of Kirstenbosch, against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain” – South African National Biodiversity Institute

Blyde River Canyon Nature Reserve

Castle of Good Hope

“Opened in 1679, the castle is the oldest surviving building in South Africa and has been the centre of civilian, political and military life at the Cape and the nation since” – castleofgoodhope.co.za

PHOTO BY LUKAS KAFFER, CC BY-SA 3.0

“The Blyde River Canyon Reserve extends along the Blyde River Canyon’s winding path, which at every turn offers more and more impressive views over sheer edges dropping 800 metres into the riverbed” – Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency

Lion’s Head, Cape Town

“A lot of people do the hike as an early-morning constitutional, and it’s a local ritual to hike up and watch the sun go down on a fullmoon night. The moonlight helps the walk back down, although you should always bring a torch (flashlight) and go with company” – Lonely Planet

BY BERNARD GAGNON - OWN WORK, CC BY-SA 4.0

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden

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LIBERIA Africa’s oldest republic is full of charm, natural beauty and an energised population eager to fulfil the nation’s undoubted economic potential, a journey which tourism has its part to play in Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Joe Palliser

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tanding proud as Africa’s oldest republic, Liberia is the only black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule.

Established on land designated for freed American slaves, the country officially became independent in 1847 and enjoyed relative stability for more than a century before civil war struck in the 1990s. Following a decade of troubles, Liberia once again has stabilised and is presenting itself as a dynamic destination for both leisure and business travellers.

From low and sandy coastal plains to rolling hills and lush rainforest inland, the country is home to a tremendously diverse array of terrain, the making of a fascinating visit for those seeking to revel in the outdoors.

Indeed, it is home to one of the finest national parks in the whole of West Africa.

Likewise, the promise to build a state-of-the-art international convention centre is sure to attract commercial interest from around the region and further afield once built – a clear sign that Liberia is open for business.

And tourism will play a key part in realising the economic potential to be found here, not least because travel restrictions have been lifted following the World Health Organization’s declaration in 2015 that the nation is officially Ebola-free.

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The Business End FACTS & FIGURES

President: George Weah Capital: Monrovia Languages: English Area: 99,691 km2 Population (2018): 4,377,000 GDP (2017): $2.158 billion Currency: Liberian dollar (L$) Time zone: Greenwich Mean Time Dialling code: +231 Internet TLD: .lr Climate: Tropical

THE END OF the civil war in 2003 and democratic election of a new government in 2006 prompted reenergised efforts to build up Liberia’s economic infrastructure.

Shipping represents an important income generator for the country, although the economy is still a largely agrarian one, with key exports coming from rubber, forestry, and mining with the help of foreign investment in the country. Liberia is rich in natural resources and has tremendous potential to generate hydroelectric power, something which was heavily disrupted during the civil war period.

Developing the national tourism sector has been highlighted as a critical means of diversifying the economy, and concerted efforts are being made

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to organise the tourism to make it easier for visitors to plan trips.

Available information on the value of Liberia’s tourism industry is limited, with figures for 2014 and 2015 (when Ebola struck) showing a steep drop from the $232 million generated in 2011.

MICE tourism could prove an important subsector in the country’s bid to restore and grow the sector beyond the income highs seen eight years ago.

In December 2018, President George Weah named Liberia’s international convention and tourist centre after Indian independence campaigner Mahatma Ghandi. The centre will be built by Indian contractors and located on a parcel of land at Stockton Creek on the Mesurado River, near the Providence Island tourist attraction.

George Weah pictured in 1996

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In Focus Monrovia

Monrovia, as well as being the country’s economic generator, is also an important educational hub.

LYING ON THE coast and serving The city is home to the University as Liberia’s capital, largest city and of Liberia, which was founded in law chief Atlantic port, Monrovia is named in 1851, opened 1862, given university after US President James Monroe and status in 1951 and established a began life as a settlement for freed medical school in 1968. Elsewhere is American slaves in the 1820s. the modern Monrovia Consolidated Since this time the city has been School System complex in the Sinkor through both ups and downs, district, and several church secondary overcoming the ravages of war and the schools. deadly Ebola outbreak. Today visitors An interest in history is will find a vibrant city with many sights recommended for anyone visiting and sounds, including the must-visit the capital, the aforementioned Liberia National Museum, Waterside museum containing many Market, Silver Beach and Providence fascinating exhibits detailing the Island. country’s past – it is the oldest

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Africa republic and has an intriguing story to tell.

Likewise, a desire to try local and West African cuisine is also advantageous, as there are many opportunities to sample staple dishes such as jollof rice, fufu (dumplings), and okra stew.

University of Liberia

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Outlook Recommends “Liberia, a lush, green, friendly and vibrant land, offers everything from excellent surf spots and shops selling wares by edgy local designers to days spent lolling in a comfy hammock on the edge of the rainforest while listening to tropical birds sing” – Lonely Planet

HOTELS & HOSPITALITY

FOOD & DRINK IN MONROVIA

ACTIVITY & TOUR OPERATORS

Extreme Fishing Liberia The Royal Grand Hotel

The Barracuda Seafood and Sushi Bar

Jos Travel & Tours Palace Travel AIRLINES SERVING MONROVIA

Mamba Point Hotel

FuZion D’Afrique

KLM

Murex Plaza Hotel & Suites

The Cape Hotel Restaurant

Brussels Airlines

Embassy Suites

The Living Room

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Royal Air Maroc Kenya Airways

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WELCOME TO LIBERIA MAKING YOUR TRAVELS AS LUXURIOUS AND COMFORTABLE AS POSSIBLE 15TH STREET SINKOR TUBMAN BOULEVARD

+231-555-777-888 +231-770-777-893 WWW.ROYALGRANDHOTEL.COM

reservation@royalgrandhotel.com

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Visit Liberia VISIT LIBERIA IS helping to place the country on the regional tourism map.

A nation with unspoiled nature, a fascinating history and welcoming culture, there are huge opportunities that Geert Van Dorst, the association’s Founder, is seeking to develop.

“The Visit Liberia website came into existence as a result of the lack of structure online when it comes to tourism activities, entertainment, travellers’ tips and other relevant information when you want to visit Liberia,” he tells us. “I noticed this when my wife Olivia Newton and I were searching for things to do.”

“There was a void in the online platform and too many fragmented

initiatives that can’t be found easily by the normal surfer on the web, so we wanted to change that with the birth of our website. Sure, it still needs a lot of work and continuous content to make it better and user friendly for the tourists we want to attract to our beautiful country.

“Our vision is still to advocate with our Visitliberia.net to show Liberia in a more positive dimension away from the war-ravished country that still lingers on in people’s minds. Our country has taken tremendous steps towards the future to showcase our beauty to the world and welcome everybody to come.”

So, what else does Liberia have to offer? Van Dorst took time out to answer some more of our questions.

Africa Outlook (AfO): How has Visit Liberia developed and progressed in terms of its key objectives and the messages it tries to get across?

Geert Van Dorst (GVD): Sure it hasn’t been an easy task to get all the local stakeholders thinking the same way, but business owners have moved to the forefront to ensure collaboration

GEERT VAN DORST’S RECOMMENDATIONS Libassa Ecolodge – Marschall RLJ Kendeja resort – Kendeja Nana’s Lodge – Robertsport Nimba Reserve Kpatawee Falls Blue Lake – Bomi County Various hotels: Farmington (opposite the airport), Royal Grand Hotel (Sinkor), Hotel Boulevard (Sinkor) and RLJ Kendeja Resort (Kendeja) – this is where you will find high end international cuisine and service.

There are also many rooftop bars in Sinkor where there is a great atmosphere at night.

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under the form of the Liberia National Tourism Association, where we all join forces to create the much needed structure behind all the different tourism activities and provide them with a platform on our site.

The objectives will continuously change because we want to move forward and progress, so every milestone that we cross we will set a new goal to work for. Our work will never stop.

AfO: How would you say Liberia has developed in recent years as a business travel hub and what are the key reasons behind its growing appeal?

GVD: Liberia is now on the development path for tourism and equally for business – there are lots of opportunities in various sectors that can be explored for companies seeking long term development plans in Liberia.

A tourism sector that is yet to be developed is a very good investment strategy for long term business in the country, especially when you love unspoiled beaches, sea, water sports and lovely temperatures all year round.

As we speak, the government is undertaking efforts to ensure that a tourism visa on arrival policy can be implemented in the following years at the brand-new terminal at Roberts International Airport, due to be operational soon.

AfO: Why, in your opinion, should someone visit Liberia?

GVD: In my opinion Liberia is a gem to be discovered in all aspects, from its unique culture in how the country came to be and the unspoiled beauty of the landscape, to the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables and openness of the people who welcome you. When travelling with an open

This is something you should always keep in mind for traveling – safety.

AfO: What trends are transforming the tourism industry in Liberia at present? How are you responding to these trends?

GVD: The trend is that tourism entities are getting more and more organised and new ventures have started in the tourism related sectors.

We are giving them online visibility so more and more travellers will find their way to Visitliberia.net and continue working with all the stakeholders involved in this process of bringing out our country to the world.

Liberia is open for business and various sectors so we invite investors to come and check the opportunities out.

spirit, you are welcomed into the country to explore and learn more about it and its customs, making it a destination where you will feel like an explorer venturing into new frontiers.

AfO: Are there any plans or projects in the pipeline?

GVD: The government is working hard on getting various road projects implemented so easy access can be obtained to the hinterland where various touristic attractions are located.

Travel time will become reduced for future tourists and the business community in general.

AfO: What are the best ways of getting around the country?

GVD: The best way to get around is with a taxi in Monrovia and its surroundings, and you can negotiate a day price to let the taxi stay with you all day so it’s more practical to see more things. When you want to travel outside of the capital into the counties its advised to hire a 4x4 with a driver and helper because you have to bear in mind that there are no real structured ambulance networks yet in case of emergencies.

AfO: Are you optimistic about the future of the tourism industry in Liberia?

GVD: We at Visit Liberia are very optimistic for the future of the tourism industry because of the resilience of the Liberian people to always reinvent themselves in a positive way, even after war and Ebola the people are standing there proud of their nation, “Mama Liberia”, and are willing to develop and stand for that freedom.

It’s about time it became known to the world that we welcome everyone.

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Transport Links

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Gbarnga, Ganta and Sanniquellie.

Minivans also travel similar routes.

Car rental can be arranged through some hotels, and private taxis are another option for visitors looking to move around Monrovia and beyond.

Motorbike taxis called pen-pens can be found in the major cities, while bicycles represent a final road-based option,

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PHOTO: PASCAL KOBEH

MONROVIA ROBERTS INTERNATIONAL Airport is the main airport in Liberia and where the vast majority of tourists will arrive.

Among the airlines serving the transit hub are KLM, Royal Air Maroc, Brussels Airlines and Kenya Airways, the nation recovering from the cuts to services made during the Ebola outbreak of 2014/15. Liberia also shares land borders with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, meaning road transport from these places is another viable way into the country.

Once arrived, bush taxis are a popular way of travelling in and out of Monrovia from numerous other destinations, including Buchanan,

although it is wise to avoid poorly treated surfaces.

Liberia does not have a train network, so alternatives to road transport are few and far between – while there is no official ferry service, tourists will be able to find canoes and boats able to take them up and down waterways.

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Landmark Attractions IMAGE BY © RAIMOND SPEKKING / CC BY-SA 4.0 (VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS), CC BY-SA 4.0,

Liberia National Museum

“This museum was established in 1958 with support from UNESCO to obtain, preserve and display cultural artefacts and other historical items which depict the country’s heritage. Although it was looted during the 14-year war, it still manages to keep to its mandate, by exhibiting captivating pictures and artefacts about Liberia’s past” – Afro Tourism

Sapo National Park

“Liberia’s Sapo National Park contains some of the largest primary tropical rainforests in West Africa. Few people have ever been there and those who have are probably in the ranks of the most intrepid and extreme tourists in the world” – Visit Liberia

Mount Nimba

“Beautiful Mt Nimba is Liberia’s tallest peak, 1362 metres above sea level, and you can feasibly climb it if you have a few days on your hands (it’s a rewarding way to beat the heat of Monrovia). You can camp along the way if you have your own equipment, hiking along the peaks” – Lonely Planet

PHOTO BY JOHN ETHERTON

Mount Nimba

Monkey Island

“This small archipelago is home to chimpanzees that were evacuated from a hepatitis research lab during the war. Enquire in town about the most up-todate options for viewing the island and chimps from a canoe (US$5 to US$10) – it can be hit or miss, but there will usually be someone around who can take you” – Lonely Planet

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Tell us your story and we’ll tell the world.

AFRICA OUTLOOK is a digital and print product aimed at boardroom and hands-on decision-makers across a wide range of industries on the continent.

With content compiled by our experienced editorial team, complemented by an in-house design and production team ensuring delivery to the highest standards, we look to promote the latest in engaging news, industry trends and success stories from the length and breadth of Africa.

We reach an audience of 185,000 people across the continent, bridging the full range of industrial sectors: agriculture, construction, energy & utilities, finance, food & drink, healthcare, manufacturing, mining & resources, oil & gas, retail, shipping & logistics, technology and travel & tourism.

In joining the leading industry heavyweights already enjoying the exposure we can provide, you can benefit from FREE coverage across both digital and print platforms, a FREE marketing brochure, extensive social media saturation, enhanced B2B networking opportunities, and a readymade forum to attract new investment and to grow your business.

To get involved, please contact Outlook Publishing’s Managing Director, Ben Weaver, who can provide further details on how to feature your company, for FREE, in one of our upcoming editions. www.africaout

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AFRICA

eti

Opportu ng nity

ISSUE 75

GUARDRISK

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GUARDRISK GROUP MAURITIUS

Safeguarding the future of businesses across the subcontinent

A CAPTIVE

M 00 DPO GROUP Group, the largest

00 TRAVEL GUIDE BUSINESSAn insight from the Southern

A Q&A with DPO service provider pan-African payment

ALSO FEATURI

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Industry South Africa: for the Conference African Association

TI STOCKS y00construction STEFANUTmultidisciplinar South Africa’s custodian

SAFARICOM 00socioeconomic Catalysing Kenya’s development

Market

auritius is officially ranked the easiest place to do business in SubSaharan Africa.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 study, the Indian Ocean island nation scores a competitive 79.58 out of 100, this total score covering aspects such as starting a company, registering property, paying taxes, acquiring credit, resolving insolvency, sourcing electricity and trading across borders.

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Guardrisk Group Mauritius, through its specialised offering of cell captive insurance and reinsurance services, is safeguarding the future of businesses across its home nation and further afield Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Sam Love

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The ranking also means Mauritius is the 20th easiest place to do business in the world, something which fills Vikram Ramlochun, Managing Director of South African insurance group Guardrisk’s Mauritian business, with optimism.

“We are in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and the country’s business environment and investment climate has also made it one of the most business-friendly destinations in the region,” he says.

“Furthermore, Mauritius has emerged as an important platform between Asia, the Middle East and Africa for investment into the African subcontinent. The financial services sector, including the insurance industry, is an important economic pillar of the Mauritian economy and the insurance industry’s contribution to GDP is about three percent.”

Indeed, important progress at a legislative level has added even more impetuous to the nation’s insurance

industry, now recognised as a respected international finance centre.

As of June 2019, reinsurance business continues to be taxed at three percent, this having convinced the OECD about the country’s responsible approach to harmonising best tax practices between the local market and offshore market.

A Mauritian mainstay

Ramlochun is also optimistic about similar reform occurring in Guardrisk’s parent country South Africa –

however, his priorities squarely lie with taking the Mauritian business forwards.

In joining the firm in 2002, Ramlochun arrived at a company which had already been active in the country for four years, the division officially setting up in 1998 and specialising in cell captive insurance and reinsurance services, provided through three licenses (Guardrisk International Ltd PCC, Guardrisk Life International Ltd and Guardrisk Insurance Management Ltd) in those early days.

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UP | I R E M O U N T G RO E D FO O D S F | A F R I C A I M P ROV A RC H I T EC T S M E T RO P O L E

+44 (0) 1603 959 650 ben.weaver@outlookpublishing.com

www.africaoutlookmag.com/get-involved

G U A R D R I S K

G R O U P

M A U R I T I U S

A CAPTIVE

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Market

auritius is officially ranked the easiest place to do business in SubSaharan Africa.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 study, the Indian Ocean island nation scores a competitive 79.58 out of 100, this total score covering aspects such as starting a company, registering property, paying taxes, acquiring credit, resolving insolvency, sourcing electricity and trading across borders.

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Guardrisk Group Mauritius, through its specialised offering of cell captive insurance and reinsurance services, is safeguarding the future of businesses across its home nation and further afield

WWW.AFRICAOUTLOOKMAG.COM

Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Sam Love

The ranking also means Mauritius is the 20th easiest place to do business in the world, something which fills Vikram Ramlochun, Managing Director of South African insurance group Guardrisk’s Mauritian business, with optimism.

“We are in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and the country’s business environment and investment climate has also made it one of the most business-friendly destinations in the region,” he says.

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“Furthermore, Mauritius has emerged as an important platform between Asia, the Middle East and Africa for investment into the African subcontinent. The financial services sector, including the insurance industry, is an important economic pillar of the Mauritian economy and the insurance industry’s contribution to GDP is about three percent.”

Indeed, important progress at a legislative level has added even more impetuous to the nation’s insurance

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industry, now recognised as a respected international finance centre.

As of June 2019, reinsurance business continues to be taxed at three percent, this having convinced the OECD about the country’s responsible approach to harmonising best tax practices between the local market and offshore market.

A Mauritian mainstay

Ramlochun is also optimistic about similar reform occurring in Guardrisk’s parent country South Africa –

however, his priorities squarely lie with taking the Mauritian business forwards.

In joining the firm in 2002, Ramlochun arrived at a company which had already been active in the country for four years, the division officially setting up in 1998 and specialising in cell captive insurance and reinsurance services, provided through three licenses (Guardrisk International Ltd PCC, Guardrisk Life International Ltd and Guardrisk Insurance Management Ltd) in those early days.

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G U A R D R I S K

G R O U P

M A U R I T I U S

LEADERSHIP FOCUS VIKRAM RAMLOCHUN Vikramsingh Ramlochun is a fully qualified accountant and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom.

Ramlochun’s career in the Mauritian global business sector spans more than 20 years, including his role as Managing Director of Guardrisk Group of Companies in Mauritius since 2011. He has extensive knowledge and experience in financial modelling, taxation, corporate governance, risk management and cell captive insurance, among other areas.

Further, Ramlochun serves as an Independent NonExecutive Director on the board of Cell Insurance Company in Zimbabwe which is a local insurance firm serving the Zimbabwean market.

“Guardrisk Companies in Mauritius are set up as global business companies and I took my chance of joining the team in 2002 as Finance Manager, as I was comfortable with the legislative and operational side of global business companies,” he recalls.

He is a member of the Mauritius Institute of Directors and also represents Guardrisk at the Insurers Association in Mauritius.

“I then grew to the position of Executive Director of Guardrisk Group in Mauritius in 2010 and Managing Director in 2011.”

MONITOR ADMINISTRATORS HOW CAN YOU BENEFIT FROM OUR CELL CAPTIVE? Why give away the upside of risk taking when you can reap the benefits thereof? At Monitor Administrators, we believe that you’re self-contained and we want to keep you in control, aligned to your risk appetite.

Simply put: Isolate your risk and enjoy the benefits.

How? Through our bespoke cell captive programme.

OFF-SHORE OPPORTUNITIES We offer a facility whereby any insurance product sold or insurance costs incurred, outside of South African borders, may be placed in our cell captive with Guardrisk Mauritius.

LICENSING Cell owners have access to the cell captive insurer’s unrestricted license, and can write a wide range of insurance classes.

TURNKEY SOLUTIONS Why try and reinvent the wheel. We will help you figure out what’s best for you and your business.

A–Z ADMINISTRATION We will provide a complete solution, from A – Z; from discussing possibilities, to putting structure and compliance in place and administering the cell captive on a day-to-day basis.

PROFIT Our clients, with whom we partner within the cell captive space, have reaped substantial profit, which has contributed significantly to the bottom line of their businesses.

EFFICIENCY Through our processes and IT structures, streamlined over the last 15 years, we are able to offer efficiencies in both cost and time savings.

TAILOR MADE SOLUTIONS We will structure each product within our cell captive so that it’s a unique offering to you.

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Through our partnership with Guardrisk Mauritius, Monitor Administrators offers bespoke international cell captive insurance solutions across the African continent.

Geared with state of the art IT system platforms and highly skilled and dedicated staff, we are market leaders in volume based financial insurance engineering.

Our personalised approach and decades of experience, translates into insurance solutions of distinction.

We’re the people who smooth the flow of business between broker and insurer, so you don’t have to.

Contact us to discuss your unique African insurance experience.

HEAD OFFICE 45 Old Main Road, Kloof, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Te: +27 (0) 31 818-0000 monitor@monitorsa.co.za www.monitorsa.co.za Monitor Administrators (Pty) Limited is a licenced Financial Services Provider, FSP Number 17824

ADMINISTRATORS

G U A R D R I S K

G R O U P

In October 2016, the Guardrisk Group in Mauritius acquired another external insurance license in Mauritius making it a fully-fledged group with capabilities to write reinsurance, short term insurance, long term insurance, and also providing insurance management services.

“Guardrisk Group in Mauritius has grown from strength to strength with an annual gross written premium of $191 million as of June 2018,” explains Ramlochun. “According to known statistics, Guardrisk Group is the biggest cell captive insurer/reinsurer group in the country.

“Furthermore, all Guardrisk companies in Mauritius are Global Business Category 1 companies and regulated by the Financial Services Commission. Our clients are mostly from African countries and Guardrisk has the authority to write business in multiple hard currencies and can issue policies for all classes of risk permitted under the Insurance Act 2005.”

Crucially, Guardrisk International Ltd PCC and Guardrisk Insurance Company Mauritius Ltd PCC operate

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as protected cell companies and are governed by the provisions of the Protected Cell Companies Act 1999, where each cell is legally ringfenced against the performance of other cells, thereby giving maximum protection to cell owners.

This prompts Ramlochun to outline some of the key benefits associated with cell captive insurance.

“Self-insurance is the very essence of cell captive and organisations who manage their risk seriously are getting increasingly interested in this concept of insurance,” he says. “Cell captive insurance gives an organisation the possibility and opportunity to open another income stream out of proper and responsible management of risks.

“Guardrisk provides this platform in Mauritius where risks situated anywhere in the world can be reinsured or insured within a cell, and the cell owner gets an insurance vehicle without the need to set up an insurance company. The cell owner shall have rights to the underwriting results of the cell’s business and may request dividend out of the cell.”

STANDARD BANK MAUTITIUS

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tandard Bank Mauritius is a fully owned subsidiary of Standard Bank Group, the largest bank in Africa in terms of assets, valued at $123 billion at the end of 2018. In operation for over 155 years, Standard Bank has established a vast continental network that includes 20 African nations and operates an expanding presence across key emerging markets.

Through its partnership with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank is positioned to support trade and deal flows between Africa, China and emerging markets.

Benefitting from the Group’s vast network across the African continent, Standard Bank Mauritius enables its stakeholders to have access to on-theground market intelligence and use the strong local relationships which are essential to running a successful business in Africa. Adding to that, the Bank also benefits from Mauritius’s reputation for the ease of doing business. The country is ranked first in Sub-Saharan Africa in the World Bank’s ease of doing business index and enjoys a Baa1 and stable credit rating from Moody’s, combined with no exchange controls, good governance as well as political and economic stability. These are prime reasons why investors use the Mauritian jurisdiction as a financial conduit.

The partnership of Standard Bank Mauritius with Guardrisk dates to 2010. The relationship has been mainly to support its cash management requirements and has been growing over the years. Leveraging on the Group’s extensive understanding and knowledge of the continent, the Bank has been able to accompany Guardrisk in its expansion across Africa.

E mauritiuscoverage@standardbank.mu

standardbank.mu

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G U A R D R I S K

Moving with the times

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Becoming a go-to for this form of insurance has stood Guardrisk apart in the Mauritian market for the past two decades, the Managing Director pointing to several other assets which also help the company to differentiate in what is a vibrant industry.

These include a strong suite of intellectual property, detailed knowhow, dedication, in-house operational systems, a financially strong parent group as backers and sound risk management principles, while a new licensing development has also given Guardrisk an extra edge.

“We recently converted one of our short-term external insurance licenses into a professional reinsurer licence,” Ramlochun says.

“This is also a personal achievement as there is no regulatory framework dealing with conversion of a live short-term external insurance license into a professional reinsurer license in Mauritius – we had to work very closely with the regulator to ensure this was done in the most efficient and responsible manner and to the benefit of policyholders.

“Prior to this, we were writing reinsurance business into our shortterm insurance license through a derogation we obtained from the Financial Services Commission which had some conditions attached to it. Now we have a proper spread of licenses and we operate without any restrictions or limitations, and we see this as an opportunity to grow the business to the next level.”

Such an advancement falls into line with our parent Guardrisk Group’s vision to double up the business by 2022, growth in the Mauritian division seen as an important facilitator of this bold ambition.

The future will also involve adoption of new technologies, insurtech being a hot topic for Ramlochun and the company.

“I have been following this

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discussion in Africa for some time and I believe there are lots of opportunities out there in the distribution channels that are yet to be tapped in Africa,” the MD comments. “Having said that I also think the insurance industry and the regulatory framework in South Africa are sophisticated enough to support the insurtech principle.”

For Ramlochun, this tech-based strand of insurance will eventually leapfrog traditional models in the same way mobile has taken over from fixed-lined connectivity and bricks and mortar banking, a shift which Guardrisk is well-positioned to exploit.

“Our business model perfectly suits and supports the insurtech principle in the sense that our cells have the possibility of using external service providers to price their products, sell their products, administer claims payments and premium collections, among other things,” he continues.

“Guardrisk, in fact, embraced this concept a long time ago and has been successfully operating in this field.”

And it is this ability to change with the times that will stand both the company and the country’s insurance sector in good stead for years to come.

Asked how important a developed insurance sector is to business and individuals both in Mauritius and the subcontinent, Ramlochun’s concluding remarks focus on what he believes the industry needs to do in order to maximise its undoubted potential.

“Looking ahead to the future of both the sector and the company, he says: “The world is a dynamic place where changes are continuous.

Businesses need to adapt to survive and these situations bring along opportunities and threats which need to be controlled and mitigated, if not eliminated.

“The insurance industry is walking the same path and new products are being devised, and regulatory frameworks are being strengthened and extended to capture growing

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MARSH

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arsh’s proud association with Guardrisk Mauritius is pivotal in assisting our clients’ needs to align their strategy execution and risk management processes.

We stand ready to assist you to define your risk appetite, risk tolerance, and risk targets to help you understand how much risk you are willing to take and to show how you can better plan to balance your risks and opportunities before designing and executing a risk strategy that will give you the competitive advantage in today’s complex risk universe.

www.marsh.com business scenarios and protect policyholders,” Ramlochum continues confidently.

“Insurance companies in Mauritius now need to have a well-established and embedded risk management framework in place. Insurers need to report to the Financial Services Commission on all the deliverables required by the insurance risk management framework rules.

“Therefore, it is crucial that the industry keeps pace and is prepared for the dynamism of the changing world, and continues to provide protection of policyholders and businesses in the best possible way.”

Guardrisk Group Mauritius Tel: +230 454 0030 Ramlochunv@guardrisk.co.za www.guardrisk.co.za

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Marsh is proud of our relationship with Guardrisk in Mauritius.

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We help clients quantify and manage risk to survive and thrive whilst unlocking new opportunities for growth across the African continent.

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MARSH AFRICA A global leader in insurance broking and innovative risk management solutions www.marsh.com | An authorised financial services provider | FSP: 8414

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Africa Outlook_Guardrisk Mauritius_010819 Thursday, August 01, 2019 8:18:35 AM

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Patience Akyianu, Group CEO

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Inspired Combining quality service competencies, employee and partner power and a community-first approach, Hollard Ghana is leading the national indemnity revolution Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Sam Love

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weeping changes are striking the Ghanaian insurance industry, inciting economic confidence across the sector and country.

“I will commend the National Insurance Commission, our regulating body, for the massive steps being taken to facilitate the growth and development of the insurance industry.

“I think the introduction of new types of compulsory insurance and the strict enforcement of existing products such as motor insurance and insurance for commercial buildings will go a long way in boosting sector performance.

“We’re excited about the draft bill that has compulsory insurance like group life insurance, workmen’s compensation, public liability insurance, marine insurance and professional indemnity, and we look forward to the this finally being passed by the end of the year.”

Standing front and centre in the Ghanaian insurance industry, Patience Akyianu’s optimism speaks volumes of the mutual strides being taken by public and private entities alike.

Having spent 17 years in banking, holding senior positions at the likes of Barclays Bank Ghana and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana, she took a transitional cross-industry jump

into insurance owed to this buoyant outlook, joining Hollard Ghana as its Group CEO in October 2018.

“Last year was an inflection point in my career,” Akyianu affirms. “After 10 years at Barclays Bank Ghana, I decided it was time to do something different.

“I found the opportunity to champion the growth strategy of Hollard in Ghana exciting because the insurance industry here is still in its infancy. As disposable incomes increase and public perception about insurance improves through greater education and awareness, we can expect very strong growth.

“Life insurance, for example, has been growing at an average of 25 percent per year over the past three years.”

Products made meaningful

Against this lucrative back drop, the Hollard Group in Ghana is determined to become the country’s favourite insurer, offering prospective national clients innovative, tailormade, bespoke insurance solutions.

Such offerings are backed up by the brand’s presence in 18 countries across Asia, Europe and Africa (including Ghana), maintaining a combination of world-class standards and a deep understanding of the local market.

A PERTINENT PROFESSIONAL Patience Akyianu has had an illustrious career to date, no better demonstrated than by the stream of awards she has won over the years. Highlights include: • Presented with the Nobles International Award for being an eminent West African who upholds the virtues of honesty, integrity and accountability on November 28, 2013.

• Among Top 50 rising stars in Africa – Euromoney Article, May 2014 edition.

• Africa Female Economic Champion – Banking, granted

by Centre for Economic & Leadership Development – November 2014.

• Induction into Global Women Leaders Hall of Fame – November 2014, CELD. • Presented with “Woman of Excellence in Finance” by the Ghana CFO Awards 2015.

• Most Reputable Banking and Finance CEO in Ghana runner up – 2017.

• Finance CEO of the year (2017 CFO Awards).

• The 2017 All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA) top four finalist – West Africa Businesswoman of the Year.

• Named among 100 Most Reputable Africans 2018 by Reputation Poll.

• Best Woman CEO of the year (2018 Ghana Entrepreneur and Corporate Executive Awards).

• Among the 50 Influential Women in Business – Africa Report, July 2018.

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“Hollard can be described as a global brand with a strong pan-African focus,” the CEO affirms. “We benefit from our 25 years of operating in Ghana, having been formerly known as Madison and Metropolitan Insurance, combined with the expertise we derive from being a member of a strong multinational insurance group.”

Such a combination is readily reflected in the Ghanaian division’s ethos, ensuring it always observes and listens to its customers’ requirements and demands to ensure that it is able to design and deliver meaningful insurance

products that suit these needs.

From its life and general insurance offerings to its commercial and corporate lines, this approach is maintained across the board, a major reason behind its General Insurance Company being named the Most Friendly and Supportive Insurance Company in 2017 by the Ghana Insurance Brokers.

“Our exceptional claims payment ability backed by our unrivalled technical and service quality competencies distinguish us from other industry players,” Akyianu adds.

CREATING A SECURE, BETTER FUTURE Hollard’s vision is to become Ghana’s favourite insurer: • To our valued customers, this means we want to be recognised, trusted and recommended all the time.

• To our partners, it means to deliver more together, by understanding, supporting and empowering them.

• To our employees, this is becoming the employer of choice and enabling ‘Hollardites’ to be the best that they can be in the pursuit of our strategy.

• To the communities in which we live and work, to be a catalyst for enduring change by impacting society positively through our products and services and the way we do business.

• To our shareholders, to provide consistent returns and maximise shareholder value.

• And to our regulators, to be the most compliant and loved company within the insurance industry.

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Collective efforts

These esteemed services are also supported by the Group’s network of valuable partners, recognised by the firm as crucial cogs in its operations.

Providing what is described by Akyianu as a triple win for Hollard Ghana, its clients and distribution partners alike, this approach is another key differentiator that stands the company apart.

“Our strong, long-term relationships are all constructed in a way that recognises the unique contribution and capabilities of each partner,” she states. “All partners are a critical factor to the success of our business; we believe that they are at the heart of everything we do and deserve our support.

“From our cherished brokers and Hollard2U managers and agents to our partner banks, retail distribution partners and suppliers, we see that relationships matter and there is power in diversity.”

Indeed, these partners only constitute one part of the Hollard Ghana success story, its staff comprising a second lengthy string to its extensive bow of expertise.

This in mind, the company continuously works hard to ensure that it both retains and helps to develop its best talent.

“Top performers are provided with tailormade programmes and incentives, such as a long-term bonus schemes and awards,” Akyianu reveals.

“Equally, our comprehensive training schemes aim to bridge the competency gaps for all talent, prioritising technical development and leadership development.”

The use of in-house coaching and mentoring, workshops and seminars, and coordinating with key Ghanaian universities in line with the National Service Program are other methods that are leveraged to bolster this evergrowing talent pool.

As a result, the merits of these

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the financial resources to participate in our economy. It’s also about understanding how to manage money – what is currently a snare in the poverty trap.

“We believe that if Ghanaians are given an opportunity to learn basic financial management skills they’ll be empowered to make better decisions that can have a profound impact on the way they choose to live their lives, manage their affairs, and most importantly, allow them to retire methods have aptly proven their worth comfortably.”

The initiative has taken the form of in supporting the firm’s strong growth agenda, Hollard Ghana now positioned engaging materials, like posters, maps, games and other visual aids, helping as an employer of choice. to provide a working understanding of financial terminology and topics such Showcasing Streetwise as savings, banking, lending, insurance Growth is not the sole objective of and retirement.

Hollard Ghana’s efforts in regard to “There are no formal presentations,” employment, partners and training, however.

Akyianu continues. “Instead, Social empowerment is an alternate Streetwise is highly interactive, providing a real opportunity for people albeit equally important motivator to engage, discuss and ask questions for the firm, evidenced not only by in a comfortable environment, in its coherent career development turn leaving them with a practical structure for local people, but also its understanding of basic money matters wider CSR practices. that can make a meaningful difference “Our financial literacy initiative, in their daily lives.”

Streetwise, is one such practice, helping to address the inherent issue An optimistic outlook that many people don’t know how to manage their finances, especially in the Whether it’s the continual improvement of quality service informal sector,” Akyianu affirms. competencies, the expansion of its “Hollard recognises that financial partner and employee bases or indeed inclusivity is a major issue in Ghana, an ever-greater adherence to its but there’s far more to it than having

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GET4LESS

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et4Less is a fast-emerging company that deals with high quality brands, ranging from home appliances consumables to CCTV cameras.

Our highly dedicated staff deliver excellent customer service for our cherished customers when shopping online or purchasing from any of our showrooms across Ghana.

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Hurry now and start your Get4Less shopping experience to receive quality, affordable products with warranty, free delivery and excellent customer service via our showrooms, social media handles @Get4LessGhana and our online store, www.get4lessghana.com.

www.get4lessghana.com community first ethos, Hollard is set to excel in Ghana for years to come.

In the way of investments, the Hollard Group recently opened its first insurance shopping arcade, named The Hollard Purple Avenue, in the industrial epicentre of Tema.

“The Hollard Purple Avenue will serve as a one-stop shop to our current and potential clients and customers who want to find insights on any of our innovative, problem solving life and general insurance products,” Akyianu states proudly.

Meanwhile, looking at the bigger picture, Akyianu outlines four key strategic priorities for the coming year that will contribute towards the firm’s medium-term ambition of becoming the most profitable insurance group in Ghana.

“We are focused on building the capacity required to properly position both our Life and General Insurance businesses to take advantage of the emerging business opportunities

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in the market, and will continue to pursue partnerships and collaborations and expand our footprint across the country with more distribution outlets,” she states.

“We will also be engaging in activities that will enhance the Hollard brand in Ghana and increase our market share.

Whilst we have a strong desire to grow exponentially but sustainably, we are also very committed to financial inclusion and will ensure we give back to the community.

“Lastly, we will leverage technology to drive our efficiency in the market and invest in the appropriate systems.”

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STANDING STRONG By staying true to its vision and values, Stefanutti Stocks continues to defy a challenging industry backdrop and deliver excellence in execution across multiple construction disciplines and geographies Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Eddie Clinton

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nnovation, adaptability and flawless delivery are a must for South African construction companies operating in today’s environment.

A sector enduring a period of contraction which has forced many private and public-owned firms into administration, the backdrop facing those which have survived is set to remain a challenging one until at least 2020, when the industry is set to enter a phase of what Fitch Solutions describes as a tepid recovery.

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The recent elections, won by the ANC, could herald the introduction of a new infrastructure fund which could, if enacted, add some much-needed momentum.

However, for now South African construction companies are having to operate in what Russell Crawford describes as survival mode.

As the new CEO of Stefanutti Stocks, one of the country’s largest multidisciplinary construction groups and still standing today, he is hopeful

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of the upturn in fortunes which the likes of Fitch are forecasting for 2020.

“I have been in the industry for 36 years and work with people who have been involved even longer, and we all think that this is the most challenging period that Southern Africa’s construction sector has ever faced,” he says.

“Every year we believe it will improve, but margins are tightening.

Do I think the picture will improve?

I certainly am hopeful, but the

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government has a difficult job to service the debt of state-owned enterprises and make room to invest in infrastructure.”

Indeed, Crawford cites statistics which show that around 140,000 jobs in the sector were lost in the first quarter of this year, a trend which could lead to a skills drain out of South Africa and even the region, if the forecasted recovery in 2020 does not materialise.

But, while the years since the

landmark hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup have failed to deliver the anticipated construction boom, Zambian-born Crawford is cautiously optimistic about the longer-term future, an outlook based on vast experience in the sector that stretches back more than 30 years.

“Through my upbringing and school years I was always a very outdoors orientated person, so couldn’t see myself locked up in an office for the rest of my life, so I wanted to

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do something outside, and civil engineering ticked that box for me,” he recalls.

“I managed to get a bursary from a company called CMGM, which helped me to complete a four-year diploma. This was in the early 1980s, and after completing my period of national service I joined Stefanutti & Bressan in 1990, so I’ve been with the organisation for nearly 30 years.”

This period has involved working up through the ranks, Crawford starting out as a site agent and then a contract manager before moving to Swaziland where he ran the earthworks division.

At the end of 2003 he returned to South Africa, the company listing in 2007 and renaming itself as Stefanutti

Stocks in 2008. After being promoted to a divisional MD and then head of a business unit, Crawford now serves as group CEO. “The experience has been extremely valuable,” he adds, “especially the period working outside of South Africa, as I became responsible for growing the business outside of the home country.

“Through my career with Stefanutti I have spent time in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Zambia, all countries where we have completed projects. It has taught me the value of patience, and I have had the privilege of meeting ministers and working with governments, as well as meeting locals on the ground. I would say it has been a humbling experience also.”

The Stefanutti Stocks Way

Russell Crawford, CEO

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That Stefanutti Stocks is still in rude health is testament to the company’s multidisciplined capabilities and geographic reach. Asked how the company has emerged through challenging times, Crawford elaborates on these two key facets of the business.

“There are several reasons why I believe Stefanutti has been able to survive this period,” he answers.

“First of all, we are operating over a wide geographical footprint, something which some of our competitors have not had. This includes our reach into Africa and also the UAE, and allows us to absorb downturns in some markets as we can balance it out with our activity elsewhere.

Indeed, this footprint covers many Sub-Saharan African nations, including Benin, Botswana, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia.

In the UAE, the group has established businesses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

“We are also multidisciplinary and cover a huge array of expertise,” Crawford continues.

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BUD RENTAL SERVICES

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ud Rental Services was established through the collaboration of leading industrial brands, Concord Cranes, Goscor Access Solutions and Uni-Span Formwork and Scaffolding. As part of the Bud Group, we have the ability to offer Bobcat equipment and Goscor Earthmoving Equipment as part of our BRS service offering. Our business model and strategy is based on the partnerships we have created with both our clients and within our businesses.

The BRS partnership provides a collaborative approach to offering a bespoke and advanced service offering for our partners in the market. Part of this offering includes: • +51 000 tons scaffolding • +180 cranes ranging from 7T-750T • Straight boom extending up to 57m • Scissor lift payload 1 ton @27.5m high • Extendable trailers of to 57m in length • Highly qualified in-house design team • CAD based rigging studies With 18 branches covering 4 countries in Africa, our footprint is well established across Southern Africa and Ghana and we are continuously looking to expand to cater to our customers’ requirements, and in particular, those in remote geographical locations.

Please get in touch with our industry specialists for further information on how we can assist in meeting your business requirements.

T +27 11 462 8965 E info@budrental.co.za

www.budgroup.co.za

OFFERING BESPOKE INDUSTRIAL RENTAL & SALES SOLUTIONS Bud Rental Services (BRS) was established through the collaboration of leading industrial brands Concord Cranes, Goscor Access Solutions and Uni-Span Formwork & Scaffolding. As part of the Bud Group, we have the ability to include Bobcat’s Earthmoving & Compact Equipment as part of our service offering. Our mission is to offer bespoke industrial rental and sales solutions that encompass a shared product offering; tailored to meet the requirements of our clientele.

+27 11 462 8965

info@budrental.co.za

budgroup.co.za

Uni-Span is a diverse company that offers the rental and sales of formwork & scaffolding, a range of support and decking systems and specialised formwork solutions. Through our experienced sales engineers & our highly qualified inhouse design office, our offering includes technical support and bespoke solutions that are specifically tailored to meet our clients’ requirements.

Mobile crane hire, rigging services & specialised transport solutions.

Formwork and scaffolding solutions.

Specialising in high reach solutions.

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“This further allows us to weather the storm, as does the fact that we operate in many African countries as a general contractor, meaning we have the ability to take on civils, roadworks, buildings, earthworks, mechanical and electrical work. Marine construction is another area we have capabilities in, and the company has worked on many African ports.”

Surviving a difficult period is not simply down to Stefanutti Stock’s wide net of capabilities and spread of risk over multiple countries, however. An unwavering commitment to a clearly defined vision and adherence to a set of core values has also placed the company in good stead as it looks to

CORE COMPETENCIES Stefanutti Stocks can cater to a range of multidisciplinary construction activities throughout the built environment.

These can be broken down into the following key areas: • Building • Bulk earthworks and geotechnical • Energy generation • Industrial plants, oil and gas • Mining and mining infrastructure • Transport infrastructure (road, rail, marine and air) • Water, sanitation and pipelines The UAE business specialises in interior fit and refurbishment and also has a general construction division, operating under the name Al Tayer Stocks LLC.

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emerge strongly from South Africa’s construction downturn.

Its vision, ‘if you can dream it, we can construct it’, is supplemented by six values which formed the acronym CAPPED: Candour, Accountability, People relations, Professionalism, Excellence and Dynamic.

These combine with a mission to deliver excellence in execution to define what Stefanutti Stocks stands for.

Having set up as Stefanutti & Bressan in the early 1970s, the firm has spent the best part of half a century successfully delivering projects, its first being awarded in 1974 and involving the Phala Rail Grade Separation near Amanzimtoti, for the then Natal Provincial Administration.

Having completed the R185,000 contract in 1975, the company went on to enjoy a prolonged spurt of growth, momentum which has carried it to this day and now sees 12,000 workers on its books.

Crawford thus introduces what is known as the Stefanutti Stocks Way, the company’s approach which enables it to continue delivering on its promise of excellence in execution, something which he is determined to preserve while he serves as CEO. “I wouldn’t say this is about a grand vision of mine,” he explains. “We all buy the same machines and we all buy the same concrete – what will set us apart is having the best employees.

This centres around our organisational culture. I am very much a people’s person, so I am driving us to have engaged and energised employees.

“We need to be customer-focused, because I believe the relationship between the contractor, professionals and client is going to change, especially in Africa where I think the future is about a collaborative approach to contracting. The contractor will play a much more influential and strategic role with their clients, so I see that being a big focus for us.

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WEBBER WENTZEL

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ith over 150 years of experience and industry knowledge, Webber Wentzel is the leading full service law firm on the African continent.

We combine the collective knowledge and experience of our firm to provide clients with seamless, tailored and commercially-minded business solutions within record times.

We value excellence and innovation and we work with our clients to help them achieve success in whatever they do.

Our passion to help our clients achieve their goals shows in the quality of the delivery of our service.

We aim to add value in everything we do and to be the trusted adviser to our clients.

Our alliance with Linklaters and our deep relationships with outstanding law firms across Africa provide our clients with the best expertise wherever they do business.

We believe in making a positive contribution to the communities in which we work and we are proud to call ourselves home to one of South Africa’s most long-standing, dedicated pro-bono practices.

We are committed to promoting access to justice for all South Africans, upholding the constitution and protecting the rule of law.

Our corporate social investment initiatives also focus on supporting initiatives and projects that promote access to justice, education and access to education and socioeconomic development.

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“This will enable us to succeed in the next part, which is to execute flawlessly and get it right first time, all the time.”

Project prowess

Stefanutti Stocks certainly backs up these statements when considering the array of projects the firm currently has on its books, the company entrusted by clients to tackle numerous construction developments catering to many use cases.

For example, in Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland), it is engaged in the building of the country’s new international convention centre.

Delivered by a joint venture known as KISS – made up of Kukhanya Civil Engineering Contractors (20 percent), Inyatsi Construction (30 percent), Stefanutti Stocks (50 percent) – the project is a multifaceted facility valued at R2.5 billion.

The 40,000 square metre development is on track to be

completed in time to host the 2020 African Union Summit, and will house an 1,800-seat theatre, an exhibition centre, conferencing chambers, a restaurant and a multi-purpose hall across its two basements, ground floor and first floor. In terms of materials, this equates to more than 26,000 cubic metres of concrete and 730 tonnes of structural steel.

The convention centre will be joined by a five-star hotel, valued at R2.5 billion and set to become the largest in the whole of Eswatini, as well as one of the most luxurious in the Southern Africa region.

Slated for a 2020 completion date, it will comprise 299 hotel rooms of varying size, with 283 concrete shell prefabricated bathrooms imported from Italy being installed in the standard rooms and junior suites. The facility will also come complete with an on-site gym, restaurants, bars, swimming pool and tennis courts.

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A Level 1 BBBEE provider with 100 percent black woman ownership, KGRD specialises in providing a service of “procurement of convenience” to the mining, construction, retail and agricultural industries.

We aim to be a “one-stop, cost-effective, procurement-of-convenience solution” that adds value to all our clients. Our comprehensive list of products include mining and plastic products, steel fencing mesh and rebar, industrial and automotive lubricants, hose and coupling products, personal protective equipment, construction chemicals and general supplies. KGRD is a member of the Kutana Industrial Group of Companies. We are fully committed to supporting small entrepreneurs and work closely with clients to assist in local procurement initiatives.

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The company is led by an experienced and skilled team of professionals with a network of 16 branches in southern Africa including South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Zambia. We specialise in reinforcing steel for the construction industry and pride ourselves in our range of innovative and valueadded products such as welded mesh, fabrimesh, brickforce, binding wire, roof sheets. We are the only manufacturer of fortress panel fencing and the only black-owned welded mesh manufacturer in South Africa.

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“Our Dubai office has also just refurbished the world-famous Atlantis Hotel on The Palm to the value of AED 240 million,” adds Crawford, outlining that hospitality forms a key line of business for Stefanutti.

“The project consists of striping out and refurbishing 1,532 guest rooms, suites and corridors over a period of 33 months, set for completion in November 2019. This has been taking place in an operational hotel, and our initial cycle of 55 rooms in 44 days has been reduced to 55 rooms in 35 days, achieving a significant saving on time.”

Crawford also cites an important ongoing project closer to home in the form of the Kusile Power Station in Mpumalanga.

On target for handing over in 2021, it is an R11.5 billion civil works contract for Eskom involving 700,000 cubic metres of concrete which, once assembled, will support the 4,800 MW coal-fired facility.

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Track record

The above represent just a handful of ongoing projects being undertaken

by Stefanutti, not forgetting the hundreds of successfully completed developments handed over to clients down the years.

Crawford is quick to praise the important role of suppliers in building up this impressive track record, companies which form what he describes as a sense of family.

“Suppliers and subcontractors are absolutely key to our success,” he says. “If we are to be successful, we can only be so together with these partner organisations. This is especially the case when working throughout different parts of Africa, as it is not always easy to acquire the materials you need.

“Stefanutti Stocks has in its roots the Italian term meaning ‘a door to our family’, which you will find in our offices around the world – our employees are

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family, our customers are family and our suppliers are family.”

Having been at the firm for three decades, the CEO has witnessed a tremendous number of these projects reach completion, too many to state in a single interview. However, one recently completed build does instil a strong sense of pride.

“The Horizon project in Maputo, Mozambique which we finished in October 2015, showcases many of our capabilities and is a 75,000 square metre space that houses a wide range of functions such as apartments, hospitality, retail and offices,” Crawford says.

Taking just over two years to build,

Horizon began life as a piece of swamp land behind a Radisson hotel and has been transformed into one of the most iconic sights in Maputo’s skyline.

Stefanutti faced many geotechnical

challenges in preparing the ground for construction, and utilised sophisticated prefabrication techniques for several key components of the building.

Treat the company like you own it

Such flawless execution of projects is made possible by energised and engaged employees, a key priority for Crawford being the continued recruitment of the best possible talent in the industry.

“One of our philosophies revolves around the view that all of our employees, from myself as CEO to labourers on a construction site, should treat the company like they own it,” he explains.

The Horizon Tower construction contract including the bulk earthworks and piling operations. Following the contract commencement, Stefanutti Stocks Geotechnical was awarded the piling subcontract to install 534 continuous flight auger piles, completed in a record time of six weeks

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Africa’s Leading Insulated Panel System The need for specialised temperature controlled environments is continuously growing in Southern Africa Isowall, through a unique design and construction technique, is answering these needs across a continuously broadening spectrum.

Originally developed to satisfy the high demands of low temperature cold rooms and freezers for the food industry, Isowall is now used in a variety of applications ranging from temperature controlled buildings for sensitive broadcast equipment to abattoirs and chemical plants.

Isowall’s unique modular panels are used for both cold rooms and insulated doors, allowing for absolute versatility in design and application.

By providing complete project management, we can plan, design, construct, supply and commission cold stores to suit the various needs of the cold storage industry.

“How do we try to achieve that? It is

Isowall Sandwich Panels Page.indd 1 a case ofQuarter keeping everybody involved

in the project, to the extent that every day the team is brought together and discusses what is happening and what is expected in terms of output.

We also show our workers what they are building, which helps to add a real sense of purpose to their roles, and they are informed on how they perform on a daily basis.

“To add a further sense of personalisation, we add nicknames (or whatever name someone wants to be known by) onto each employee’s hardhat, and that includes my own.

I want people to call me Russell, I want to have conversations with our employees, and I want to have people who want to work here.”

In terms of recruitment, Stefanutti is making use of a predictive index tool, which helps it to hire people who are most likely to fit the required position profile, including adhering to the high

safety standards that clients across 2019/07/31 The 03:08:31 PM allows the Africa require. tool company to calculate, amongst other key attributes, whether a candidate is risk averse or risk tolerant, and such information is combined with learning ability battery tests and a medical to ensure it recruits the brightest people who are also fit to work.

Once a part of the company, their development is encouraged via a system of training that is ongoing and structured to purpose, an initiative which receives in excess of R20 million in investment annually.

Crawford admits that, while there is a degree of skills being drained from South Africa, there is a wealth of talent that Stefanutti Stocks is still able to hire from.

Looking ahead, this will form a key focus for the CEO, who concludes by outlining his priorities for the next year, a period which could be a defining one as the sector looks to

enter a phase of recovery.

“Our focus is on having the right people and ensuring we continue to execute flawlessly,” he says.

“Simplifying and standardising processes will also help towards this end, because process can bog you down when you are part of a large company like ours. Against tough economic times, it is vital to create a lean culture as well.

“All of this will enable us to build on the fruitful relations we have established with clients around Africa and the UAE.”

Stefanutti Stocks Tel: +27 11 571 4300 holdings@stefstocks.com www.stefanuttistocks.com

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Building

MadeBold Having amalgamated an extensive architectural portfolio defined by excellence, Metropole Architects is bringing dynamic design to the global stage Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Eddie Clinton

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s global urbanisation has begun to spiral, architecture has risen in tandem, coming to the fore as one of the world’s most influential industries.

Described by architect Tadao Ando as the balanced synthesis of engineering and art, it is a specialism that defines the development of our living environments and shape of our cityscapes.

For Tyrone Reardon, South Africa is a market that has begun to truly embrace the extent of its impact.

“South Africa enjoys quality design, making it a market that presents opportunities for architectural firms who can deliver just that,” he explains.

“For the most part, South Africans are progressive people, enthusiastic to keep abreast of cutting-edge international trends.”

Having been a budding architect from the age of 12, Reardon was somewhat destined to excel in the industry.

“Myself? I am fortunate in the sense that I knew I wanted to work in this field from a young age,” he continues.

“I have always been attracted to creative pursuits such as art and music – strengths that aligned with a career in architecture.”

Studying the profession at the University of Natal between 1996 and

2002, he quickly secured a job working for now-partner Nigel Tarboton thereafter, the business having rebranded to Metropole Architects following the creation of a partnership between the pair in 2005.

“Nigel and I both operate in a designorientated manner,” Reardon, the CoFounder, adds. “We are naturally drawn to the types of projects that facilitate creative expression; hence Metropole Architects sets itself apart as a boutique architectural design studio.

“Ultimately, we focus on producing the best possible architecture both in terms of design and implementation.”

Project power

Having maintained an excellencefocussed ethos for well over a decade, Metropole Architects has developed the residential and commercial portfolios to back it up.

Looking at South Africa alone, it has delivered an abundance of luxury houses and modern, innovative buildings. This includes the firm’s ongoing contributions to the Durban Iconic Tower, set to be the tallest building in Africa and indeed the Southern Hemisphere.

To say that the firm’s reach is limited to South Africa or even the continent, however, would be false.

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he vision has been to look at the kitchen differently, where the kitchen is seen as modern furniture, anchoring the architectural interior while serving the functional demands of the modern home.

With this, blu_line has envisaged a unique experience for every person using this space and carrying the experience through.

It is this outlook and philosophy that drives the company and continually pushes the brand to discover more, risk more and create unique experiences for their niche clientele.

Creating products for the kitchen first and then the whole home has been the passion for nearly two decades, ensuring everything considered is grounded in touch materials and architectural form, with in-house proprietary technologies enhancing the overall dynamic experience.

The brand-new Johannesburg showroom adapts and develops as the user walks through the 600 square-metre space, offering an unrivalled experience for every client.

Beyond kitchens, the new wardrobe area showcases the latest material developments that carry the blu_line authentic luxury finishing to the rest of the home.

Continually testing new materials and textures, as well as adopting and embracing technology every step of the way, while keeping to the vision no matter what the obstacle, is what led the way to what has ultimately become the iconic blu_line brand.

For more information on the blu_line brand, please visit www.blu-line.co.za

www.blu-line.co.za

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“I’m particularly proud of a residential property that we completed in Tel Aviv, Israel for a client that previously had no relationship with South Africa whatsoever,” explains Reardon, outlining Metropole Architects’ global capabilities.

“The builder didn’t speak a word of English and the balance of the team assembled for the project was really diverse and multicultural.

Of course, this made the realities of overcoming language barriers, building conventions and geographical separation in order to produce an

outstanding piece of architecture a significant challenge.

“However, despite these hurdles, the project was a complete success.”

Such success, much like any of Metropole Architects’ other projects, is somewhat testament to the close-knit relationships that the company has maintained with its world-class partners and suppliers over the years. From contractors to construction specialists, the enterprise ensures that it works with the very best in the industry.

Reardon continues: “The implementation of our designs relies

Fuschia Way

completely on these relationships. The success of every project that goes onto site hinges on the team assembled to implement the vision.

“The better the completed final product turns out, which is the fruit of the collective efforts of all parties involved, the more positive the impact on our business.”

A community catalyst

Partners and suppliers aside, Metropole Architects’ team of experienced professionals are equally a major driving force behind the company’s ongoing advancements.

Having developed an enviable workplace culture built on high talent retention rates, it provides the perfect platform for young architects to flourish with coherently structured progression programmes.

“We don’t experience a lot of influx with our personnel,” Reardon affirms.

“New team members are mentored for a few years before being given increasing degrees of autonomy. The end result is that they end up gaining experience and competence in all areas of the practice.”

Durban Iconic Towers Top: House Desai

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Reardon’s own journey with Metropole Architects provides the evidence of this.

Meanwhile, the company has also established itself as a community stalwart in other ways besides career development, taking an active stance on the front of corporate social responsibility.

“We have been involved in a number of community-based projects over the years, where buildings have been donated by organisations into disadvantaged contexts,” Reardon explains, “and have provided architectural services for free on a number of projects that we believed in and wanted to support which were unable to self-fund the fees.”

From social investment to employee empowerment to project excellence, the future looks bright for Metropole Architects.

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Citing optimism towards the future, the Co-Founder once again points towards the latter of these focus areas as our conversation begins to draw to a close.

“We are very excited about a new project which is starting up on site in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus,” he reveals.

“This will be another flagship home for us.

“Further, we are also excited about the Durban Iconic Tower project. It’s making steady progress through the project inception phase of the process and should transition into its next phase in the near future.”

The rise of technology is a second field that is very much on the company’s radar, the business looking to capitalise on the role that social media, blogs and other engagement platforms are playing in changing the perceptions of architecture.

“Likewise, video conferencing and livestream video feeds have facilitated

the opportunity for architectural input to be provided on site from any location in the world,” Reardon adds.

“Both of these factors have opened up the world to architects who have international aspirations.”

It is this global outlook that resonates clearly with Metropole’s own ambitions moving forwards.

Reardon concludes: “The next season of our growth will likely necessitate us opening a new international office, and we are already considering either the UK or the USA, or both, as potential locations.”

Metropole Architects Tel: +27 31 303 7858 info@metropolearchitects.com www.metropolearchitects.com

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Keeping Zambia Building By supporting clients with expert remanufacturing services, Hitachi Construction Machinery Zambia is ensuring reliable machinery makes its way to vital infrastructure projects across the country Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Donovan Smith

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The country’s construction industry ambia, somewhat against the regional grain, is home to a is a vital contributor to GDP, which grew sturdy construction sector at by around four percent last year and is present. forecast to expand by 4.2 percent in 2019 The well-documented headwinds and 4.3 percent in 2020. faced by fellow Southern African neighAlso crucial to the sector’s current and bours, especially South Africa, appear to long-term stability is a resolute mining be shielded against for a sector, something which number of reasons.

Scott Johnston, GM of Public infrastructure Operations for Hitachi projects and investment Construction Machinery in commercial buildings Zambia (HCMZ), and residential recognises as a positive housing have ensured backdrop that the a continuing pipeline company is operating in. of demand, shown by “We are still seeing the fact that Zambian investment in the local cement production construction and mining increased by 10 percent industry,” he says, “and in 2018 according to with the rise of demand figures from the Africa Scott Johnston, General Manager on electric vehicles we of Operations at HCMZ Development Bank. only foresee the demand

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Hitachi’s remanufacturing centre in Zambia

for copper to increase. We therefore look forward to rejuvenated activity in 2020 and also see the trend that customers who sweated their assets from the last global recession are now starting to look for replacement equipment.”

Indeed, much of HCMZ’s activity is focused on remanufacturing key Hitachi machinery components throughout their lifecycles, its specialisms including hydraulic pumps, motors and cylinders, electric motors for excavators and alternators, wheel motors for diesel electric trucks, and transmissions for trucks and excavators.

Its customers are involved in various projects in Zambia, including dam construction, housing projects, specialist projects that include the improvement of water reticulation, and agricultural developments, among other activities.

“Our philosophy is to provide

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reliable solutions,” adds Johnston.

“One way this is achieved is by working closely with the customer, listening to their needs and then acting on them. This then provides the solution the customer needs as opposed to trying to tell them what they need. At the end of the day, reliable machinery is key to our clients. They need peace of mind that the machine is going to keep their construction tasks on time and on budget.

“In addition to this, Hitachi has invested heavily into Zambia and its customers through its remanufacturing centre.”

Based in Lusaka, the remanufacturing centre has recently undergone an expansion which has increased both technical and physical capacity to carry out work. Further, it has also elevated the facility to a status whereby it now serves Europe and Middle Eastern markets, as well as Africa-based clients.

Cummins is committed to keeping its customers Always On for the next 100 years

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ummins Inc. is celebrating its 100th year as a company throughout 2019. Today, Cummins, which is listed as a Fortune 150 company, employs around 60,000 people worldwide and serves customers in nearly every country across the globe. Cummins products range from diesel and natural gas engines to hybrid and electric platforms, as well as engine systems components, controls and related technologies and it continues to develop new advanced products and services.

The company’s humble roots date back to 1919 when Clessie Cummins and his business partner, William G. Irwin, built a company that was one of the first to take advantage of the groundbreaking technology developed by German engineer Rudolf Diesel in the late 1800s.

Cummins has been active on the African continent since the 1940s when a dealer in Morocco began servicing Cummins-powered trucks left behind by the US Army after WWII. In 2016, Cummins South Africa celebrated its 70-year existence as a distributor of Cummins.

Established in 1946 as an independent distributor, the company was acquired in 2000 to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cummins. Cummins later acquired several branches in neighboring countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana to further boost its distribution footprint, which is the backbone of its business in Southern Africa.

Cummins Zambia

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Cummins has invested significantly in Southern Africa with the recent launch of its 15,355 square metre Cummins Southern Africa Regional Headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. The R350 million facility includes a Master Rebuild Centre (MRC), Africa Learning Centre, as well as a world class sales and service facility. In 2015, the company opened its new 20,000 square metre, state-of-the-art Southern Africa Regional Distribution Centre (RDC), air filtration and coolant manufacturing plant, also in Johannesburg, South Africa. The establishment of the Southern Africa RDC has resulted in increased overall parts and filtration availability with greater depth and breadth of product stocking in order to better serve customers in Southern Africa.

The key industries for Cummins in the region are the mining, power generation and automotive industries, as well as the supply of components and technical support to customers.

While most independent engine manufacturers no longer exist, Cummins’ leadership credits its longevity to its 100 years of commitment to its mission, vision and values, staying focused on long-term goals and standing up for what is right. This commitment has been beneficial to all Cummins stakeholders and will continue to guide decisions for the next 100 years.

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Another development made since Africa Outlook last spoke with HCMZ centres around new Hitachi machinery being launched.

Johnston reveals: “We have released our latest generation dump truck into the Zambia market in the form of the AC-3. This model is a totally new generation of truck which unlocks production and provides increases in safety for its operators.

“In addition to this and our expansion of the remanufacturing centre in Lusaka, we have welcomed the new -5A series wheel loader, a series of models which match well with our construction sized excavators.

CARING FOR THE COMMUNITY As well as supporting construction and mining clients with their Hitachi equipment, HCMZ looks out for those within its surrounding communities through a series of corporate social responsibility projects.

Since 2017 the firm has been running projects independently through its branch locations, offering support to local infrastructure projects and other community-driven programmes. It has previously worked in tandem with Development Aid from People to People, a body which aims to improve the livelihood, health and education of families.

Johnston adds: “We hold a strong belief in giving back to the communities we do business in.

“Our CSR programme switched from a top down to bottom up approach.

Rather than senior management selecting projects to participate in, we now encourage our employees to nominate a cause in their local area. This results in our CSR activities being more likely to have an effect on an area or subject close to home.”

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Last but not least, we have recently launched the -7 mining excavator which has up to 10 percent fuel saving compared to the previous model, while maintaining the same production levels.”

Transforming with technology

New equipment is also backed up with technology to optimise the maintenance and repair process, the concept of predictive maintenance an important one in that it ensures minimal downtime of machinery.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Zambia thus utilises a system called ConSite. A digital remote condition monitoring solution, it sends realtime alerts to email and mobile apps, effectively allowing HCMZ to keep watch over a machine’s health on behalf of the customer.

Given much of the company’s equipment is used on sites located in remote areas, the ability to detect a fault early is paramount to keeping downtime at a minimum, with owners alerted at the soonest opportunity.

This is just one example of technology futureproofing the operations of HCMZ and its clients, however.

Johnston cites several other examples, adding: “As you know, we are just at the start of the IoT

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revolution. Hitachi Construction Machinery is fortunate to have the parent company of Hitachi Limited, which is one of the global leaders in innovation.

“This allows us to provide the customer with innovative safety and production technology. Some examples are our aerial angle object detection systems, trolley line guidance systems and ConSite for mining operations.

“Our autonomous haulage solutions are also making great leaps and we recently made an announcement on how Hitachi intends to change the stereotype of autonomous haulage by making our system an open operating ecosystem.”

Johnston is referring to a platform called Solution Linkage, Hitachi Construction Machinery’s IoT solution that works in partnership with customers to improve safety, increase productivity and reduce lifecycle costs.

ConSite falls under this umbrella,

as does the FMS mine management system, geared towards creating a network of partners that integrate their systems alongside existing mine infrastructure and encouraging new tech entrants into the mining sphere.

By supporting a multi-vendor approach to autonomous construction and mining vehicle operations, Hitachi is enabling clients to reduce costs and take advantage of the freedom to choose vendors independent of their fleet management systems.

Such advances will help Johnston and HCMZ in their bid to achieve the remaining objectives for 2019 and the

longer term, the GM of Operations stating a desire to increase the company’s construction customer base, while at the same time ensuring it can supply feasible solutions to international customers long into the future.

On a personal level, having moved from Australia in 2011, he very much looks forward to the next chapter.

Johnston concludes: “I have enjoyed my time in Zambia over the years and have witnessed many changes in the industry during my time here. I am sure I will continue to enjoy the challenges and rewards that operating in Zambia and Africa have to offer.”

Hitachi Construction Machinery Zambia

Tel: +260 211 285 361 zambiasales@hcmaf.com www.hitachicm.co.za

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Driven by

Design

Built from the ground up, dhk Architects now stands as not only one of South Africa’s top design companies, but equally a champion of social enablement and industry optimism Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Eddie Clinton

Looking at the direction of South African architecture, I can honestly say that I am pleased. The quality of design in this nation has drastically improved compared to previous decades, and vast swathes of fantastic projects are underway both here and across the continent.

“It’s exciting – the world is beginning to notice us and for that I’m

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very proud of the entire industry.”

Derick Henstra is distinctly optimistic.

Having been interested in architecture from the age of 13, he remains just as enthused about the industry today as he was four decades ago, now standing as the Founder and Executive Chairman of one of Africa’s preeminent architectural design firms.

“Last year dhk Architects celebrated its 20th year,” Henstra continues,

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introducing the company. “It was a time of reflection; a period where we could look back at the business and its achievements. It’s truly been a great success.”

Having incorporated derick henstra architects (dha) in 1983, a name that the organisation held until its merger with KCvR in 1998, Henstra has spent the vast majority of his career pursuing his passion thanks to the support of his wife, gradually building the firm brick by brick with his esteemed team over the past 36 years.

Fast forward to the present day and dhk Architects is now considered to be one of the top design companies in South Africa, employing over 120 people across Cape Town and Johannesburg.

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“I think the thing that makes us different, the reason that people enjoy working with us, is this passion that we have,” Henstra affirms. “Our team is incredibly curious, spirited and research orientated, always searching for new design solutions.”

A happy, harmonious studio

Pointing to this acclaimed team of specialists throughout our conversation, Henstra also highlights that the company gives back to its employees through a variety of staffcentric initiatives that include weekly training sessions.

“We recognise how quickly the industry is moving, so training is a big

thing for us,” Henstra states. “We know it’s something that staff look for – they want to learn – and so every Monday morning we host a different seminar.”

External resources are also leveraged, the firm providing each and every one of its specialists with an annual allowance to go outside of the office and find valuable, extracurricular education in any subject of their choice.

“We invest in it because it’s simply a sound investment,” says Henstra.

“What you end up with is a team of experts who don’t feel the urge to leave; who are grateful for the opportunity to learn new skillsets and further their careers.”

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This forward-thinking, innovative ethos equally acts as a secondary tool in helping to achieve talent retention.

Working with some of the most advanced architectural technologies such as Revit, a leading BIM (building information modelling) platform, its personnel have become adept in anything from delivering 3D models to navigating sophisticated cloud networks.

These philosophies combined constitute what can only be described as an enviable workplace culture, something that Henstra himself is particularly proud of.

“No day is the same at dhk,” he states. “We’re a harmonious, happy studio, operating in an environment that ensures our best talent can thrive.”

Project perfection

And thrive they do, no better evidenced than by the broad range of celebrated projects that the company has delivered over the past 20 years.

One such project that has gained global traction, the recipient of the Gold A’ Design Award, Silver Loeries Award, Fulton Award and the SAPOA Award for Innovative Excellence is Norval Foundation, a Cape Town-based art museum completed by dhk in 2018.

Another is Battery Park, a 12,000 square metre urban park situated at a key entranceway to popular tourist destination the V&A Waterfront, which received a Fulton Award, the SAPOA Overall Heritage Award and was named a finalist in the coveted international Architizer Awards.

Meanwhile, Henstra himself eludes to one of the firm’s older constructs, the 50,000-square-metre Laguna Palace Hotel Development located in Venice, Italy, highlighting it as being one that helped to elevate dhk’s global prestige, amongst other ongoing projects.

“Right now, we’re working on a residential development named Ellipse

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Waterfall in Waterfall City that will capture Gauteng’s awe-inspiring sunsets and landscape, as well as a mixed-use 27-storey tower called The Rubik that will form a contemporary addition to Cape Town’s skyline,” he reveals.

“If I’m being honest, it’s difficult for me to single out any specific project – each and every one of them is special and different. Yet at the same time, that’s one of the great things that has come to define dhk. We’re able to deliver a diverse range of buildings, be it mixed-use developments, public buildings, schools or hotels, because we have a diverse range of expertise.” dhk thinkspace, a second, independent entity under the group’s ever-expanding umbrella, epitomises this outreach.

Driven by a team of 30, dhk thinkspace excels in delivering interiors for offices and commercial workspaces, offering complementary services to dhk’s architectural design prowess.

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WORLD OF WINDOWS GROUP (PTY) LTD

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orld of Windows Group (Pty) Ltd has been delivering on the design, supply and installation of building envelopes (aka skins or facades) for 35 years across a number of countries.

The company continues to invest in long term partnerships by delivering on the expectations of developers, architects, cost consultants, façade engineers and main contractors. Its vertically integrated supply chain ensures that its pricing can compete with the Far East in global markets, and a supplementary design office based in Manila ensures fast turnaround times regardless of time zones. The firm welcome new partners who share their values of Experience | Innovation | Excellence.

Cape Town +27 21 551 3235 Gauteng +27 11 314 0101 E info@worldofwindows.co.za

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www.worldofwindows.co.za | info@worldofwindows.co.za

World of Windows Group (Pty) Ltd (WoW) is committed to partnering with project teams to deliver building envelopes that are landmarks of success. They therefore enjoy the opportunity to deliver on the timeless, yet bold, design leadership from dhk Architects (Pty) Ltd. The large format cladding on the AXIS project pictured above was developed in response to dhk’s design intent, using WoW’s ™3D2Fab technology. The site crews proved their commitment to innovation by working the hours to deliver on the deadlines with the strong support and leadership from WBHO Construction (Pty) Ltd. We therefore look forward to ongoing project partnerships with dhk, so that together we can help build a world class city skyline where people can live, work and play for generations to come.

A key facet of working for dhk is that no two days are the same

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“dhk also gets involved in interior design, but we focus primarily on residential and hospitality projects,” Henstra explains. “This ability to provide internal fit outs is something that has continued to uphold the brand, and we’re now able to operate across the full spectrum of design for the built environment.”

An admirable corporate citizen

Projects aside, dhk outreach is another offering that has garnered an admirable reputation for the dhk brand, owed to it being the vehicle for the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.

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that the firm is currently helping to design for physically handicapped children, as a well as its contributions towards a football education programme named AMANDLA that is run for street children.

And all of this is run alongside dhk’s efforts to become a champion of broad based black economic empowerment, a field it is striving to become increasingly relevant in.

“Of course, we’re not the only ones partaking in CSR, and it’s great that so many companies are making their own efforts,” Henstra adds. “We’re just pleased that we can do our bit.”

Building a future

Initiatives under this portfolio are varied, but the firm’s underlying focus is largely centred around helping the youth.

Henstra affirms: “We’re heavily involved in Go for Gold, an initiative that identifies and supports kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. If they show an interest in architecture, we encourage them by offering them the chance to spend their holidays gaining work experience with us.

“Equally, if there are budding students hoping to enter the industry but aren’t quite able to achieve the necessary grades, we take them under

Looking ahead, it is this responsible mantra that forms a large part of dhk’s overriding ambitions.

From upholding communities to providing a fantastic workplace environment and creating relevant, meaningful, exciting architecture, Henstra is hopeful that the company can continue to make landmark contributions and generate mutual benefit for all parties moving forward.

“Like any company, we have financial targets that we forecast and try and reach, but I feel that our work is ultimately about much more than that,” he states as our conversation comes to a close.

“I think if you have a positive our wing and prepare them for college outlook then that’s half the battle.

There’s so much negativity about life, and/or university.”

This in-house education process has about the way it can go, but if you operated with great success. To date, maintain the right attitude then it can certainly go a long way. the company has nine bursary college “For this reason, I am certainly students that it is funding and has helped optimistic for the future.” numerous students reach technical colleges by imparting knowledge and providing other resources.

“We also donate to educational and charitable organisations,” Henstra dhk Architects continues, “and partake in pro-bono work on an adhoc basis.”

Tel: +27 (0)21 421 6803 Pointing to these alternate hello@dhk.co.za www.dhk.co.za initiatives, the Executive Chairman highlights a community sports centre

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Transforming

LIVES For Safaricom, success is not dictated by finances and statistics.

It is determined by a wider purpose of catalysing community development and supporting socioeconomic strides Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Vivek Valmiki

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round the world, the modernised, optimised millennial processes brought about by emerging technologies have paved the way for digital and enterprise transformation.

In Kenya, this backdrop is no different.

One of East Africa’s leading lights, the country recently claimed third place in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report for Sub-Saharan Africa, owed to its growing youthful population, skilled workforce and dynamic private sector.

The latter of these core elements is underpinned by the nation’s thriving telecommunications sector.

From the deployment of fibre and LTE infrastructure upgrades to the arrival of 5G and rapid internet and mobile subscriber growth, it is an industry that has flourished following its liberalisation in 1999.

The government has been a key proponent of the monumental technological strides that Kenya has taken, continually adhering to its overriding ambition of becoming East

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Africa’s technological hub.

Yet arguably it is Safaricom that has played the greatest role, emerging as a true powerhouse of the country’s and indeed continent’s digital economy since its inception almost two decades ago.

Pursuing a purpose

Now serving over 30 million mobile subscribers across the country, Safaricom remains invested in a unique way of conducting business, driven by its purpose of ‘Transforming Lives’.

Stripped back, this is essentially a social upliftment mandate, the company ensuring that its operations serve to create opportunities for the Kenyan people, allowing them to become part of its growth story by empowering them with the platform and tools they need to achieve socioeconomic growth.

This win-win ethos has been embodied by numerous different initiatives including the enterprise’s base station programme, the roots of which can be found in the Kapedo Base Station.

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Set up in the heart of the Great Rift Valley where resident communities had historically been engaged in inter-tribal clashes, the base station has helped to provide not only mobile phone signal but equally a link to emergency services, healthcare services and educational opportunities.

“The origin of our most impactful transformation stories is the base station,” Safaricom states on its website. “We now have over 4,000 towers connecting Kenyans from Turbo to Turkana with each of these base stations having its own unique story to tell.”

Embodying social empowerment, these base stations merely touch the surface when looking at the true extent of Safaricom’s social impact, however.

Mobile wallet health service M-TIBA represents a second flagship CSR investment from the company, a community tool created by a joint venture between CarePay, PharmAccess Foundation and Safaricom itself. Leveraging the trio’s respective strengths, M-TIBA today delivers healthcare solutions to more than 100,000 Kenyans via 60 key healthcare providers.

“We have also partnered with the government numerous times to extend more services to Kenyan citizens by digitising primary schools, connecting health centres,

streamlining payments to farmers and much more,” the company continues.

“By working with Eneza Education, we are enabling over one million children to access interactive education material through the very simplest of mobile phones.”

The vast majority of these social investment efforts appear under the widespread umbrella of the Safaricom Foundation.

Kenya’s largest corporate foundation, it has helped to benefit over a million people via various disaster response schemes. This includes 830,000 Kenyans having received specialised health services through mobile medical camps, 680,000 children now learning in classrooms, 232,000 people having been empowered by community-based income generation projects and 172,000 Kenyans having been provided with clean and safe water.

“In addition, the Safaricom Foundation has planted over 5.6 million trees in community nurseries and in large scale conservation projects; constructed 181 classrooms and dormitories and 50 special units to cater for the special learning needs of children,” the company adds.

Now 10 years old, the Foundation’s total financial contribution to date exceeds Ksh1.8 billion ($18 million), funding that has been used to help address issues related to health,

THE G+D GROUP

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he G+D Group was founded in Leipzig in 1852 by Hermann Giesecke and Alphonse Devrient as a company that specialised in printing banknotes. After their property in Leipzig was expropriated in 1948, and following the firm’s subsequent re-establishment in Munich, Siegfried Otto developed the company into a global technology group. Operating within the group, G+D Mobile Security has built its success in business through payment cards and connectivity since 1968, when it first patented the basic technology for smart chip cards.

The company also developed the first pluggable SIM cards and today, it manages over 2.9-billion SIM cards and more than one billion mobile devices worldwide.

As we navigate through a new digital age, a secure digital identity is essential to ensure complete transparency and trust in a connected world, where billions of people are constantly connecting with machines and devices.

“Securing the digital world adds a lot of complexity, and there are more layers and potential attack vectors that need to be considered when it comes to securing a connected car or a digital, tokenised payment card inside a smartphone,” says Jerusha Rooplall, the Managing Director of Giesecke and Devrient Mobile Security Southern Africa.

We are proud to be a Safaricom partner and adding this to our list of achievements. We have been a partner of Safaricom since 2010 and our business relationship has grown from being a simple supplier to that of adding value to the Safaricom brand.

Our slogan is ‘Creating Confidence’ - we do that through our many innovative products and solutions, as well as our long history and unrivalled experience in this particular field.

T +27 (0)87 7544260 E info.gdsafms@gi-de.com

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Jerusha Rooplall, Managing Director of Giesecke and Devrient Mobile Security Southern Africa (G+D Mobile Security) in sub-Saharan Africa

Securing the road to digital payments.

As we navigate through a new digital age, a secure digital identity is essential to ensure complete transparency and trust in a connected world, where billions of people are constantly connecting with machines and devices.

The G+D Group was founded in Leipzig in 1852

by Hermann Giesecke and Alphonse Devrient as a company that specialised in printing banknotes.

After their property in Leipzig was expropriated in 1948, and following the firm’s subsequent reestablishment in Munich, Siegfried Otto developed the company into a global technology group.

Operating within the group, G+D Mobile Security has built its success in business through payment cards and connectivity since 1968, when they first patented the basic technology for smart chip cards.

The company also developed the first pluggable SIM cards and today, they manage over 2.9-billion SIM cards and more than one billion mobile devices worldwide.

Securing the digital world adds a lot of complexity, and there are more layers and potential attack vectors that need to be considered when it comes to securing a connected car or a digital, tokenised payment card inside a smartphone,” says Jerusha Rooplall, the Managing Director of Giesecke and Devrient Mobile Security Southern Africa.

“Without trust in the legitimacy of an identity or transaction, or even the protection and integrity of data, a business cannot be sustainable. People need to know that their identities, connections, transactions, data integrity and privacy is optimally managed at all times. We have issued billions of payment, authentication and transit cards, and we are one of the leading global suppliers of payment and SIM cards.

"G+D Mobile Security Southern Africa is proud to announce the opening of its personalization bureau in Johannesburg South Africa. We have been part of the evolution from the very beginning, and we are now also a technology and market leader in mobile payment and eSIM management,” she adds.

Rooplall believes that while physical cards— the carrier of a digital identity—will remain an important market for the foreseeable future, they will evolve and be increasingly complemented by a purely digital, embedded version such as eSIMs or tokenised payment cards when it comes to mobile payment scenarios. “We see the digital space evolving rapidly, and we are already seeing the convergence between both the payments and telecommunications industries.”

Our slogan is ‘Creating Confidence’, we do that through our many innovative products and solutions, as well as our long history and unrivalled experience in this particular field.

Tel: +27 (0)87 754 4260

Email: info.gdsafms@gi-de.com

S A F A R I C O M

education, economic empowerment, environmental conservation, water, arts, culture and disaster relief.

Facilitating financial independence

While the aforementioned examples showcase some of Safaricom’s incredibly important and humbling initiatives, CSR is not the only way in which the business has helped to transform lives, its customers also benefitting greatly from its progressive mindset and offerings.

Adhering to its strategic pillars of putting customers first, delivering relevant products and maintaining operational excellence, the firm proactively invests in next-generation technologies, evidenced by its ongoing roll out of the country’s leading 4G network.

Safaricom expects to spend over

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$360 million in the next 12 months to increase 4G coverage, rolling out an additional 2,030 4G and 4G+ base stations with aim of reaching more than 80 percent of the Kenyan population. “[We] have a vision to become the best 4G network for everything from gaming and entertainment to social networking and I look forward to collaborating with a cross-functional team to make this happen,” stated Michael Joseph, Interim CEO, in the company’s annual report published August 5, 2019.

“Growth in this area will support our evolution into a digital lifestyle enabler, which will position us favourably to grow new revenue streams from nontraditional products and services… and other innovations in the pipeline.”

Alongside LTE, M-PESA has firmly

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become Safaricom’s second key investment focus area.

A mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service, it currently processes up to 21,000 transactions every minute and provides access to two mobilebased loans every second, financially empowering Kenyan’s from all backgrounds.

Within the latest Annual Report, Safaricom released a statement from Bob Collymore as part of a tribute to the recent passing of the company’s long-standing, cherished Chief Executive Officer. Here, Collymore himself emphasised the importance of M-PESA to both Safaricom and indeed the country.

“As customer needs evolve, so does our strategy and we continued to innovate and invest in M-PESA,

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Ombra Manhole use a unique “Knock-Down”TM design, which means knock down into panels while delivering and assemble at the destination, the shipping space will be 1/4 of traditional prefabricated manhole – it means total shipping & logiest will be reduce 3/4.

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Total assemble weight: Approx. 124kg 20’’ FCL CAPACITY:110SETS Application Installed underground, applied for telecom cabling, connection and telecom device installation. Due to the light weight and flexible “KnockDown”TM design, enabling easy, fast and more convenient installation, with less labor or equipment required and saving total project cost.

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Ombra Investments Co. Ltd is a Kenyan based company, equipped with professional and support personnel which offer quality services to our clients.

Ombra has grown to become one of the largest specialized supplier of IT equipment in Kenya. With trained, certified, experienced personnel, Ombra has the capacity and expertise needed to meet the client’s every supply requirement on time and on budget.

In Ombra Investments we understand and remain highly committed to the quality, consistency, and excellence demanded by industry-wide standards.

S A F A R I C O M

including upgrading our core platform to support 1,200 transactions per second – in order to meet these needs,” he stated.

In addition, the scrapping of M-PESA fees for transactions below Ksh100 and reduction in merchant fees helped to enrich the M-PESA ecosystem and facilitate its furthered popularity, enabling Safaricom to take the service into new markets.

Collymore continued: “This saw us embark on a journey to take M-PESA to the world with M-PESA Global, which allows customers to send and receive money, make payments and participate in international ecommerce

FOOD THROUGH M-PESA While M-PESA is renowned as a digital financial empowerment tool, the platform has also been used as part of Safaricom’s CSR efforts, helping to provide access to food for refugees.

Working with the World Food Programme, the telco has been using its product known as Chakula Chap Chap in the camps of Kakuma and Daadab to digitise food delivery for over 100,000 refugee households.

“It has removed the opportunity for corruption by eliminating middle-men, and reduced the cost of distributing relief aid, creating employment and business opportunities for people in refugee camps,” Safaricom states.

“This initiative has shown us that our business can help bridge critical gaps for our society.”

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through partnerships with Western Union, PayPal and AliExpress.

“One month after its launch in January 2019, over four million customers had transacted more than $62 million. By May, that number had grown to over $450 million and continues to grow as more customers turn to it...”

This exponential growth, combined with M-PESA’s increasing use in commercial transactions, has seen its transactional volume grow by 22.1 percent and transactional value grow by 27.9 percent during the past year.

To put this into perspective, M-PESA accounted for 76.6 percent of annual service revenue growth and contributes 31.2 percent of total service revenue for Safaricom, the company now catering to the financial needs of 22.6 million M-PESA customers.

Nawe Kila Wakati

Aside from M-PESA, the telco’s customers have benefitted from its innovative outlook in other ways.

Enhanced digital experiences have equally come in the way of customer care-related initiatives, the firm having served over 102,000 unique users with its chat bot while currently serving 700,000 daily users on the MySafaricom App. Such developments have also been accompanied by the implementation of voice biometrics, interactive voice response systems, and an increased use of data analytics, allowing the company to provide predictive, proactive and personalised offerings to its customers.

In addition, more traditional customer service improvements have been made, including the launch of a new call centre in Eldoret and employment of 800 people to help meet demand.

This latter point embodies the firm’s ‘Nawe Kila Wakati’ (Always With You) motto, again reflected by its recently

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BRAND TRACK LIMITED

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rand Track Ltd offers a full range of branding services to corporates and resellers. Our large capacity enables us to offer the best quality at wholesale prices.

We work closely with women and youth entrepreneurs to provide promotional apparel, uniforms, safety wear and gift items that are tailored to your specification, down to the tag.

We handle commission-based projects with timeliness and confidentiality in mind, ensuring you meet your deadlines.

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MTECH

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ecognised as a CIO Top 100 Company, Mtech was founded in 2001 in Nigeria. In 2006, Mtech opened offices in Ghana, Uganda and Kenya. This marked the start of our African expansion. Today, we have operations in 17 countries and over 100 employees!

Mtech has been at the forefront of cutting-edge solutions including the first deployment of voice biometrics in partnership with Nuance on Safaricom.

We offer bespoke solutions to our partners including mobile money integrations, mobile survey systems, core banking extensions, mobile banking suites, messaging and tailored IT solutions.

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repositioned bundles and consolidated status as Kenya’s most trusted company.

“Our goal was to deepen customer engagement by giving access to affordable voice, data and messaging services,” the company stated in the Annual Report. “Safaricom hopes to

A TRIBUTE TO BOB COLLYMORE Bob Collymore, Chief Executive of Safaricom, died on July 1, 2019 after a two-year battle with cancer.

The highly esteemed and widely admired businessman spearheaded Safaricom for almost a decade, a period in which the telco doubled its customer base and saw profits increase by 380 percent, making the firm a $10.8 billion company.

A key part of this development process also saw Safaricom launch a number of applications and social initiatives that have helped low income people across Kenya and the world gain access to digital and financial services, such as M-PESA, for the first time.

Statements from Collymore in Safaricom’s latest annual report reflect such values that he himself was a major proponent and indeed architect of.

He stated: “One of the most important lessons to learn in business is that no business can succeed when the community around it is struggling. This was true for Safaricom last year.

“In response to this, we adjusted our strategy to enhance the delivery of services in finance, agriculture, healthcare and education, creating greater value for our customers, shareholders and the communities we operate in.

“This approach, which is in line with our purpose of transforming lives, saw us invest more in our communities, using mobile technology to empower millions of Kenyans across the country.”

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endear itself to Kenyans as an enabler, a brand that allows customers to communicate, socialise and do business.

“Nawe Kila Wakati is our way of showing Kenyans that we understand their challenges and we are here to share the load and ease the burden.”

Maintaining momentum

From social upliftment efforts and the Safaricom Foundation to the development of innovative new offerings in aid of upholding worldleading customer satisfaction, it is easy to see why the telecommunications giant has established itself as one of Kenya’s and indeed East Africa’s leading businesses.

As traditional revenue streams have plateaued, the company has continued to redefine its focus in a proactive manner, both tapping into new opportunities and delivering greater value for its customers, shareholders, partners and local communities.

Looking ahead, the Annual Report dictates that the company will continue on its current trajectory, diversifying its revenue portfolio and investing in the quality of its services.

“We are constantly questioning if we are on the right path and if we are staying true to our course of making a fundamental difference in people’s lives with everything we do,” Safaricom states.

“We are already in the journey of digitising Kenya; in the next three years, we aim to be Kenya’s largest digital services provider by building an ecosystem of partners. Our vision is to provide the optimal digital solutions that make the lives of our customers simpler and better.

“Partnerships are at the centre of our journey to be a digital service provider.”

Safaricom www.safaricom.co.ke

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TATA COMMUNICATIONS

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Being a leading corporate services firm in East Africa, providing company secretarial and Governance services, we have built an experienced team over the years. We believe that knowledge is worthless without experience.

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Nourishing NATIONS AIF produces high-quality nutritious foods made from maize grown by over 35,000 Rwandan farmers that treat and prevent malnutrition across East Africa Writer: Jonathan Dyble Project Manager: Josh Mann

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Like a lot of people, I was climbing the corporate ladder and ended up working as the Vice President of Marketing for a $2 billion travel technology company in the UK. However, I kept asking myself, what am I really doing here? Where’s the value that’s created for society by what I’m doing?

“A lot of the work conducted in high-end economies is often focused on marginal optimisations of customer value, yet at the same time, there’s billions of people in the world who are

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struggling with the very basics.

“I decided I wanted to get into something that would make more of a meaningful impact and quickly became passionate about the agri-foods space, looking at how the global food system works, or doesn’t in many cases.

“I enjoy business, don’t get me wrong – the strategic, the day to day, the commercial is all fascinating to me.

But each of these elements become particularly rewarding when they’re applied to causes in Africa, where there’s a lot to be done.”

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For Amar Ali, Africa Improved Foods (AIF) provided the perfect platform to use his skills and make a tangible difference.

An organisation set up with the single goal of helping to address malnutrition across East Africa with food made in Africa, AIF has been operating out of a state-of-the-art facility in Kigali, Rwanda for close to three years, helping to raise the overall quality of food in a region where 36 percent of all children under five are stunted.

“State-of-the-art has almost become

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Amar Ali, CEO, Africa Improved Foods

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a cliché that people use a lot, but this facility truly is,” Ali, now CEO of AIF, states boldly.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from visitors, dignitaries, multinationals, and they’ll all agree that it’s of the highest international standard. And there’s a reason for that. A lot of the food consumed by people here on a daily basis is unsafe, even harmful, and that’s in part due to a lack of hygiene, safety and other issues in the supply chain. Our facility is helping to change that.”

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THE AIM OF AIF Globally, two billion people suffer from malnutrition, with almost half of them going to bed hungry every night.

Further, 22 percent of children around the world (151 million) suffer from stunted growth, preventing them from reaching their full cognitive potential. As a result, these children face learning difficulties in school, earn less as adults and face other challenges both physically and mentally.

A $1 billion impact Invigorating social inspiration in this Indeed, the direct impact that sense constitutes one part of the firm’s AIF’s processing facility is having wider overall impact, an impact that on the value chain is not to be has recently been measured in dollarunderestimated. Yet it is not the only terms by the University of Chicago. way in which the company is helping Evaluating AIF’s contribution to local to address the systemic problem of economic development in Rwanda, malnutrition. developing the local food system Having welcomed the President of the and its value chain, and its efforts World Bank, the President of the World to combat malnutrition, the report Food Programme, delegations from the concluded that the firm is set to create Swiss and New Zealand parliaments and just shy of $1 billion in social benefit by five African Presidents, not to mention 2031. an array of influential multinational “It’s a huge number, but it shouldn’t organisations, the Kigali plant is equally be much of a surprise,” Ali states. raising awareness and changing “The objective of our nutritional perceptions. programmes is to bring “It’s demonstration down the stunting effect; a flagship,” Ali rates in Rwanda from affirms.

38 percent to 32 “Of course, receiving percent. This doesn’t recognition is nice for sound like a lot, but us, but the bigger point when you consider the to make is that it helps cost of malnutrition to to show what can and a country’s economy should be done. It derived from increased shows how a country healthcare costs, like Rwanda can reduced education become a shining light potential, lower for not only the region, productivity, etc., it’s but equally the world – Prosper Ndayirageije, Country massive.” and why shouldn’t it?” Manager, AIF Rwanda

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The economic consequences of malnutrition are serious too, estimated to be up to 11 percent of GDP in Africa and Asia each year. Meanwhile, well-nourished children are 33 percent more likely to escape poverty as adults, and preventing malnutrition delivers approximately a return on investment of $16 for every $1 spent.

A public-private partnership set up between DSM, the Government of Rwanda, the International Finance Corporation, CDC Group and Dutch Development Bank FMO, the goal of AIF is to contribute to a reduction in these stunting rates by producing and making available nutritious, high quality foods to those who need it most.

A localised approach

It is at this point that Prosper Ndayiragije, Rwanda’s Country Director for AIF, enters the conversation, highlighting the company’s work with 35,000 smallholder farmers across the country as key to this $1 billion domino effect.

“Sourcing maize locally is a massive part of what we’re trying to achieve here,” he reveals. “Working with smallholder farmers, we’re able to

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support and create jobs, provide knowledge transfer and offer an abundance of benefits beyond just being a food and beverage company.”

With this being so crucial to the company’s vision, AIF has even altered its processes to ensure it can help smallholders maintain quality and secure consistent, reliable business from AIF. “In the beginning, we were sometimes forced to reject grains that were coming in because of a lack of quality,” Ndayiragije continues.

“But the smallholders didn’t actually have the means of adhering to our standards.

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“To solve this, we began to work with them on the ground, providing equipment and training, and altered our buying processes, instead purchasing cobs and extracting the maize by undertaking the post-harvest handling ourselves.”

There are downsides to these methods, of course, the company having incurred extra costs to ensure that its vision and purpose remain strictly on track. Yet over the coming years, AIF is anticipating that smallholders will begin to adopt best practices to increase their own yields and margins.

“We’re focused on the long-term, on

THE NOOTRI RANGE Since the launch of AIF’s Kigali facility, the firm has developed a range of different products to help combat malnutrition amongst young children and mothers.

These products, branded Nootri, are a set of porridge flours that have been enriched with relevant vitamins, minerals and proteins to improve and maintain the health of its consumers.

“This began with Nootri Mama, a product created to provide the necessary nutrients to pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and Nootri Toto, a complementary product suited to children from six months of age,” Ndayiragije reveals.

“Later we introduced Nootri Family, a product providing the same dietary outcomes for the whole family. In the coming months, we’ll be looking to diversify each of these ranges, introducing different flavours for example.”

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socioeconomic stability,” Ndayiragije affirms.

Championing change

Looking ahead, the firm’s shortterm objectives, such as promoting its Nootri-branded products, will contribute to achieving these goals.

“It’s our plan to look at how these can be marketed to ensure that they are consumed and have their desired impact,” Ndayiragije states.

“We understand that it may take time for consumers to understand that our products offer a solution to malnutrition, but that is why we’ll be taking steps to help people

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also know that 50,000 jobs need to be created in Africa every day for the next 35 years just to absorb the rapid population growth.

“In that context, it seems perverse that development organisations would import food into East Africa from OECD countries for humanitarian purposes. While in some cases, it might cost a bit more to buy from local differentiate between nutritious standards become the expectation. farmers here, not doing so creates a products and unhealthy products.”

I’m proud that we’re helping to false economy.

The CEO echoes Ndayiragije’s catalyse this in the food industry “It’s a systemic problem and one general sense of optimism, highlighting more specifically, and we’re already that needs to be addressed, not only the fact that Rwanda is currently beginning to see it spread across to combat malnutrition but equally to moving at a very fast pace.

Rwanda and indeed Uganda and Kenya proactively encourage self-sufficiency “Yes, it’s a relatively small economy to some extent.” across Africa.” right now, but it’s adjacent to many At the same time, however, the CEO major countries, is relatively businessis quick to iterate that mindsets need friendly and corruption-free, and has a to change if East Africa is to thrive in progressive government at its helm,” Ali the long term.

Africa Improved Foods reveals. “Volkswagen just established a He passionately concludes: “The footprint here, for example. importance of local sourcing has gone Tel: +250 788 389 516 “What I’m particularly optimistic off the radar slightly as an issue, but info@africaimprovedfoods.com www.africaimprovedfoods.com about, however, is Rwanda becoming it shouldn’t. Agriculture is by far the known as a centre for quality as higher biggest employer of people, and we Africa Improved Foods is set to create just shy of $1 billion in social benefit by 2031, owed to its contribution to economic development and efforts to combat malnutrition

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Having received a new lease of life, East Africa’s most successful coffeehouse chain is set to embark on an exciting new chapter as it turns 20 years old Writer: Jonathan Dyble Project Manager: Lewis Bush

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ast Africa is a region enrobed with optimism.

Real GDP across its 13 countries rose by an average of 5.7 percent in 2018 according to the World Bank, a trajectory that is expected to remain strong with forecasts of 5.9 percent for 2019 and 6.1 percent for 2020.

Combine this with a population that is expected to double in size and reach 711 million by 2050, overtaking the entirety of Europe in the process, and it’s easy to see why an aura of excitement surrounds the region as it gears up to meet the associated challenges and opportunities.

20 years old this year, Java House Africa is one such business embodying this enthusiasm. With foundations in Kenya, its Java House coffee, 360 Degrees Pizza and Planet Yogurt brands now span 75 restaurants across three countries.

“Our industry, like many others, is on

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the up,” states Steve Carlyon, referring to the thriving food and beverage scene.

“Casual diners have become community hubs, meeting places for friends, families, business meetings, dates, you name it. F&B is about more than just providing great food.

It’s about providing destinations to celebrate social occasions, and the

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A Tale of

Transformation appetite to be spoilt in a culinary sense is certainly growing.”

Previously heading up Emirates Airlines’ frozen meals production plant in Dubai, Carlyon took a leap into East Africa last year to join Java House, the region’s largest coffee led casual dining restaurant chain, as its Commissary General Manager.

One of the continent’s entrepreneurial success stories, the enterprise has grown exponentially since introducing its gourmet café culture in 1999, described by Carlyon as Java Love, now operating 75 outlets across Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.

Yet despite this rapid expansion, Java House is only beginning to

dive beneath the surface of its true potential, especially in its commissary food production unit.

“For people like myself who’ve been lucky enough to travel and experience different hospitalities and cuisines, it’s easy to see that we’ve got a fantastic opportunity to influence the whole region,” Carlyon affirms.

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Motivated by modernisation

Touching upon Java House’s history with Carlyon, he is quick to reveal that the company has recently been overcoming numerous hurdles, views reiterated by Paul Smith.

LEADERSHIP FOCUS STEVE CARLYON, GENERAL MANAGER Starting out as a graduate of Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and a member of the Institute of Manufacturing Engineers, Carlyon fell into the food and beverage industry after a visit to Edinburgh’s Burton’s Biscuit Factory.

“There was a huge focus on the companies of silicon glen, essentially Scotland’s alternative to Silicon Valley, where we would visit hi-tech manufacturers,” he explains. “Everything I’d seen before was too automated for me to be exciting, there was little human element involved, but watching biscuits being made was fascinating to me.”

“I love the coffee business. It’s an amazing sector to be involved in with its ability to connect people in different ways,” Smith, the CEO, states. “I think Java has always embodied this, despite challenges surrounding its ownership, uncertainty and a lack of adequate modernisation.

“We’ve spent the past two years reenergising the foundations of the business and are now in a good place to begin the next fruitful chapter in the company’s story.”

Sweeping changes have been implemented across the board, from a greater emphasis on brand development with the launch of a revamped logo to expanded digital media campaigns and numerous reimaging projects at many of the firm’s famed restaurants.

“We have also continued opening more stores as well,” Smith adds.

Arguably the most significant changes, however, continue to come from behind the scenes, evidenced by the planned implementation of a stateof-the-art, company-wide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

“It’s almost felt like walking into a toy shop as a child and buying all the toys you’ve ever wanted,” muses Carlyon.

“I see myself as a bit of a measurement freak, and that’s exactly what the ERP will allow us to do –

As such, he spent 15 years in the industry in the UK before moving to Dubai to head up Emirates Airlines’ frozen meals production plant, making 176,000 meals per day at its peak for a variety of different customers.

“I loved the freedom, putting forward business cases, saving the business money and finding new commercial opportunities for us to exploit,” Carlyon adds. “It is this that drew me to Java House.”

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LEADERSHIP FOCUS PAUL SMITH, CEO Having spent 19 years with Marks and Spencer in the UK, Smith’s interest in working abroad was stirred up by working with one of the retailer’s franchise partners oversees.

“As a result, I worked for Starbucks in Kuwait for about a year and then got headhunted

by Costa, becoming part of the team that helped to put their brand across 30 countries in nine years,” he explains. “This included living and working in the Middle East, Russia and finally as Costa’s MD for China.”

From here, Smith moved to Bangkok for a year on a consultancy role before moving to Abu Dhabi to help The Coffee Club establish itself in the region, and then worked with the casual dining group in helping it establish the foundations of an early International business.

“I was then approached by a company called Abraaj to help with the due diligence on Java House,” Smith reveals. “When the company was finally purchased, I was asked to stay on and become the CEO and have been so for about two years now.

measure the value and performance of every function of the business, running it with incredible transparency while enabling efficiency optimisations.

“Two years ago, the company would create a product, and it would look okay and taste okay, but underpinning that, nobody actually knew the cost of producing it. We’ve addressed this temporarily using excel spreadsheets and other tools, but the level of data capture and analysis expertise hasn’t been there – something that the ERP will soon address.”

Additionally, this flagship investment will complement Java House’s plans to optimise its central manufacturing facility, currently consisting of seven separate industrial units.

Carlyon continues: “Essentially, we’ll be taking a 3,700-square-metre brownfield site and transforming it into an 8,000-square-metre worldclass consolidated manufacturing facility, boosting our capacity and broadening the potential and reach of our products.”

From ideas to innovation

Process developments are coming thick and fast across all aspects of the business as Java House undergoes what can only be described as a major transformation.

“I stayed on in Africa because I had worked all over the world, and Africa was always a target place to work. I think it’s probably down to my early youth of reading Wilber Smith books and dreaming about living there; and here I am in the middle of Kenya.”

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Inside one of Java House’s restaurants, venues which have been subject to reimaging projects in recent times

Yet these changes will not only be of benefit to Java House, evidenced by the alternate logistics-driven initiative currently being pursued by the business in partnership with an international logistics partner.

“The board took the decision a year ago to outsource our logistics and distribution function – this involved launching a tender, scoping warehousing, distribution and fleet

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as the three elements Java required assistance with,” explains Carlyon.

“There were many reasons behind this, including the fact that the trucks that we inherited two years ago were approximately seven years old. When you consider the amount of mileage that these vehicles would have driven, combined with a lack of maintenance, repairs and absence of on-board cooling, for food safety, we recognised

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that the fleet needed to be replaced.

“This collaboration is exciting,” Carlyon continues, “as it has undoubtedly provided us with a cost saving that we will benefit from.

“However, due to the fact that nobody was currently doing what we were asking them to do – manage our distribution and warehousing – we also identified an opportunity, an opportunity that has taken the form of Foodscape.”

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Described by the GM as an alliancedriven initiative, Foodscape will see the two companies develop a fleet of co-branded trucks, creating a new business division that will not only handle Java House’s distribution and warehousing requirements, but equally those of third-party businesses.

“Other F&B players can use Foodscape’s warehousing instead of investing in their own facilities and

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE “Java House adheres to best practices in terms of environmental health and safety, ensuring our staff are well looked after, and that our suppliers are paid on time, keeping their cash flow healthy,” Smith reveals.

Equal opportunity is also very important – 65 percent of its store managers are female while the average age of its 2,500 staff is 27.

Further, the company also actively engages in traditional CSR practices, working with numerous charities and supporting young people, helping them to find their feet.

leverage our distribution network without having to buy trucks,” Carlyon affirms. “As a result, we’re expecting this to become another firm business value stream over the course of the next five years.”

“What you end up with is a three-way win – the farmers sell their products for a fixed price, the banks know they’ll get a return on their investment, and we’re able to stabilise our own costs by avoiding alternate purchasing channels.”

Supplier power This initiative was motivated at Readily positioning itself as a flagship a supplier conference that Java for industry-wide success through funds, inviting suppliers to come Foodscape, Java House is equally and network with each other, motivating mutual benefit for the brainstorm and find solutions to common pain-points while creating a F&B industry in other ways, namely via the recent transformation of its community between small and large procurement function, as an example, manufacturers alike. now working directly with grassroots “The main backbone of these potato farmers across East Africa. conferences initiated our Supplier Code of Conduct, something that “What we’ve done is agitate the supply chain,” Smith reveals. “The issue we was introduced 18 months ago to encountered in doing so is the fact that help eliminate and reduce the risk these potato farmers work in an environ- of behaviour you would condemn,” ment where the climate constantly plays Smith continues.

“We have also added a whistlearound. As such there is limited continuity in price and they find it difficult to blower line, independently managed secure funding from the banks. by an outside company that is “To overcome this, we went to both active and importantly instils one of our major partner banks, who confidence about the way that we agreed to lend the farmers money want this business to be run – in a on the basis that we guarantee a responsible manner with what we call purchasing price.

Java integrity.”

“We work alongside a number of charities, with an emphasis on orphanages,” Smith reveals.

“We’ve recruited two individuals who were originally from orphanages who are now working in our own local Pizza 360 outlet – Java’s artisan, authentic, high-end Italian pizza brand.

“We do a lot of work with people, supporting SME individuals, mentoring entrepreneurs, and developing young people. We’re now in the process of exploring how we can bring all these great causes that Africa has under one initiative.”

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Java House restaurants will be supplied by its new distribution division, named Foodscape

A global outlook

This is not all for Java moving forward, however.

Asked about any major investments alongside the development of a new commissary, ERP system and Foodscape, both Smith and Carlyon point to Kukito – an alternate quick service restaurant brand set to be launched by the firm in the second half of September.

“It was clear that there was space in the Kenyan market for a truly locally grown and African based QSR brand, and after some research we discovered the gap,” says Smith. “At the same time Steve was having some interesting conversations.

“I was on the third hole of golf course with a friend of mine who happened to be the Operations Director of KenChic, one of the biggest chicken players in

Kenya,” reveals Carlyon.

“We were talking about how his plant was capable of more and how we could drive prices down through volume, and as a result the idea of Kukito was born – we saw the opportunity for both our businesses to benefit.

“That’s the thinking behind Kukito – it’s also a brand that’s designed to be internationalised.”

Equally Java House is being approached from numerous countries, be it Dubai, Oman, India, South Africa and China, with entrepreneurs looking to franchise the business.

Having carefully developed an extensive, in-depth franchising management programme, Java House is gearing up for all its brands to take major steps into new global markets – a fourth and final goal of the company.

“I intend to do a lot more fishing,” Smith jests, when asked about his priorities moving forward. “But in all seriousness, with the optimisation of our operations, development of new business opportunities and huge changes taking place alongside the celebrations of our 20th anniversary, we’re more than optimistic.

“I’ve worked all over the world and I have to say that the guys here are making it easy for me – they’re the best talent I’ve ever come across in terms of their thinking, their understanding, their entrepreneurialism, their commercialism.

“They’re great people, and they’re going to be crucial in helping us to achieve great things. I’m proud of them all.”

Java House Tel: +254 790 330 842 lucy.kiarie@javahouseafrica.com www.javahouseafrica.com

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The Canola Curator

To be honest with you, my initial inspiration to join the company was because of the brand B-Well – it was one of the few edible oil products standing in a retailer that actually informed a consumer of what they are buying.

“If you don’t know, or back then if you didn’t cook, then you have no idea of the difference between canola,

Having introduced the canola crop to South Africa in the 1990s, Southern Oil has created a diverse portfolio of products under its B-Well brand which continues to identify with consumers Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Lewis Bush

sunflower or soya oil. B-Well, however, educated consumers on shelf and tried to portray the message of why?

Why should you buy canola oil? Why is canola good for you? This was what drew me in, and when the opportunity arose, I took it with both arms.”

For Morne Botes, the desire to join Southern Oil was made before the opportunity even arose.

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A keen consumer of its B-Well product range and impressed by its openness and transparency, the now Commercial Director is five years into a journey which has seen him learn from peers and understand the local and international edible oil market.

THE SOUTHERN OIL PORTFOLIO Southern Oil’s B-Well portfolio, in existence since 2001, houses an array of oil products, including: B-Well Canola, B-Well Canola and Olive Blend, B-Well Flavoured Canola Oil (chilli, lemon, garlic varieties), B-Well Grapeseed Oil, B-Well Wok Oil, B-Well Saute Oil, B-Well Deepfry Oil, B-Well Extra Virgin Olive Oil, B-Well Refined Cooking Olive Oil, B-Well Chef (specialised food service frying oil), and B-Well Spray (baking, cooking, olive varieties).

Completing the B-Well product portfolio are B-Well Sandwich Spread and B-Well Mayonnaise (tangy, gourmet, canola/olive, reduced oil varieties).

The company also owns a coconutbased brand called Nuts About Cooking, consisting of refined coconut oil and cooking spray, and Canega, a nutrition brand aimed at the equine market.

In terms of shareholding, Southern Oil is made up of multiple shareholders: Sentraal Suid Co-operative (60 percent), Canola Development Trust (15 percent), an employee trust (18 percent) and then several smaller individual shareholders (seven percent). The Canola Development Trust is designed to invest in the community.

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Having established a firm departmental structure across the company, a process which has geared it up for growth, Botes is fully submersed into a drive to establish B-Well as a brand which represents more than just oil, but a range of responsible health foods.

“I now have an exceptionally talented team reporting to me,” he says.

“The next focus area will be to drive volume growth through our sales team, further develop and build our brands through marketing, work on efficiencies in distribution to improve on service levels and decrease costs, and work on the next phase of innovative product development.

“Southern Oil has provided me a platform to be the best I can be, and this has given me the opportunity to provide the best for the company to drive growth.”

Kickstarting the canola trend

Much of the innovation Botes refers to revolves around the rise of canola, a crop introduced by Southern Oil into South Africa in 1995.

“The primary reason behind introducing canola into the country was to offer farmers an alternative rotational crop solution,” the Commercial Director explains. “The first several years were spent testing and a fair amount of learning took place.

“Now we are able to offer a farmer an attractive financial solution as a rotational crop to wheat that also puts nitrogen back into the soil, meaning the following year’s crop sowed into the field will generate greater yields.”

Since being brought into South Africa, the industrial customer base for Southern Oil has grown with more manufacturers using canola as a primary ingredient in their products, a shift which has allowed the company to benefit from heightened awareness of the health benefits associated with canola.

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GEA

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EA is one of the largest technology suppliers for food processing and a wide range of other industries. The global group specialises in machinery, plants, as well as process technology and components.

GEA provides sustainable solutions for sophisticated production processes in diverse end-user markets and offers a comprehensive service portfolio.

In edible oil refining the quality of the final product depends on the refining method and the nature of the crude oil.

GEA offers a wide range of centrifuges designed to boost value in this respect, ranging from a separator with a daily capacity of 10 tonnes for operators of small oil mills right through to separators with capacities of more than 1600 t/d for large refineries.

Customers benefit not only from our advanced individual centrifuges; we also design and supply entire process lines for both chemical and physical refining. Designed to meet the needs of the specific production tasks and individual customer requirements, our solutions ensure extremely efficient and reliable overall processes.

They enable the raw materials to be used almost completely, consuming minimum quantities of water and energy, and thus making a vital contribution to economic success and efficient use of environmental resources.

Apart from our core competences for press oil clarification, degumming, neutralisation, dewaxing, fractionation and soapstock splitting we can also support you with know-how for special applications, such as lecithin recovery to improve added value in your crushing plant or for oleochemical applications such as glycerine recovery.

T +27 21 555 9000, E sales.southafrica@gea.com

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It’s in Our Nature Innovative and efficient process lines and separation know-how from GEA for the recovery and refining of edible oils • Extraction of olive oil, avocado oil, nut oils, cocoa butter, jojoba, linseed and others • Extraction of oils and fats from meat and fish by-products • Recovery of palm oil including 3-MCPD and GE mitigation • Cleaning of frying and cooking fats • Refining raw oils to cooking oils, e. g. such as soy oil, rapeseed oil, palm oil, sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil More information: phone: +27 21 555 9000, mobile +27 83 408 2577, sales.southafrica@gea.com

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This has solidified the platform from which Southern Oil’s product research and development can take place, and Botes is eager to prioritise the storytelling element of B-Well’s next generation batch of products.

“Southern oil is focusing on building brands, and not only selling a commodity,” he adds. “There is an enormous number of products for a consumer to choose from, and if there is no brand value then price is the primary driver for the decision.

“Changing the consumer’s purchasing decision driver from price to brand is done through making your product distinguishable and adding value, so that the consumer is willing to select our product above another product on shelf.”

Such development will, clearly, rely on a slick operation from farming through to wholesale and retail distribution.

In terms of raw material, the 2018/2019 year saw Southern Oil process a canola crop of 105,000

metric tonnes, with Botes estimating a near 10 percent rise for the 2019/2020 period (115,000 metric tonnes).

“Our dedicated agricultural team assists farmers with knowledge and expertise in growing canola seeds,” adds Botes.

“Southern Oil has 420 independent farmers supplying seed to our silos around the Western Cape, and being the sole crusher of canola seed in the country means we have a responsibility to develop the market and provide growth opportunities to these important partners.”

Many of the company’s 517 employees are engaged in the numerous logistics and manufacturing processes that take place out of Swellendam and Mooreesburg (Western Cape), these facilities able to crush and/or refine numerous types of oil beyond canola, including sunflower, safflower, grape seed, soya and olive.

Southern Oil also trades in palm, sesame and nut oils, servicing in excess

Southern Oil offers a variety of B-Well products

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SELECT PPE

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elect PPE has continued to offer quality safety products and PPE solutions to customers for the past 20 years, which has enabled the business to evolve into an organisation which serves many industries such as mining, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, petroleum, hospitality, medical, corporate and security on the African continent.

Apart from being a PPE distribution company, Select PPE provides customers with partnership-based management solutions for the procurement, issuing and record keeping of personal protective equipment. Select PPE employs more than 400 employees in its African operations with 160 onsite stores and warehouses.

T +27 (0) 11 296 3600 E marketing@selectppe.co.za

www.selectppe.co.za

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Masimo Chemicals South Africa (Pty) Ltd., is a leading distributor of specialty chemicals to niche markets in the Sub Saharan Region.

As a supplier of the highest quality Extraction Grade Hexane, Masimo is a supplier of choice to the Oil Seed Extraction Manufacturers eg. Soya Bean, Sunflower and Canola Crushers in Sub Saharan Africa. Contact us for your Hexane requirements.

T: +27 310720500 | E: enquiries@masimochem.com

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of 1,600 customers and exporting to 10 countries worldwide.

Diversifying

In Mozambique, the firm has recently acquired a coconut crushing facility.

Based in Inhambane, the purchase has opened up a new line of product development which includes refined and crude coconut oil sold in bulk or packed, while protein from the seed is sold into the animal feed market.

The brand in question is named Nuts About Cooking, something which Botes believes holds significant opportunity to drive further innovation into the market.

In another bid to stay on trend with consumers, Southern Oil is placing sustained emphasis on developing its portfolio of plant-based products.

“There is a strong movement in the world towards these alternatives, with several driving factors, including environmental, ethical and health reasons,” says Botes.

“Southern Oil launched under the B-Well brand a vegan mayonnaise that is canola-based (high in Omega 3) and

Coconut crushing facility, Mozambique

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endorsed by The Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa as it adheres to the heart and strokes criteria for lower sugar and salt levels, which means it touches all three reasons for plant-based consumer switching.

“This, along with the sensational taste, has seen consumers switch in large numbers to B-Well Mayo.

We know that consumers are looking for alternatives – it is now our task to ensure we offer the best quality product, so that consumers not actively looking for plant-based products want to purchase B-Well purely because of the taste.

“If the mayo is any indication of how this segment will grow, then there is a very exciting future ahead of us, and hopefully we will bring some innovation to the market.”

These new lines of business naturally lead to a larger network of suppliers,

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suppliers which Botes describes as genuine partners in the company.

Indeed, Southern Oil’s stated vision is ‘to provide optimal value to all stakeholders, from soil to consumer’, soil representing the hundreds of farmers who grow canola and other crops used in the likes of B-Well and other products.

Partnerships extend far beyond farming suppliers, however, and for Botes, this is all about servicing the customer.

“Being the sole crusher in effect means that, if we are not able to supply products to our customers, then the customers’ production or sales within the category may stop,” he explains. “Therefore, ensuring consistent supply from raw material, packaging material, production equipment and consumables, and logistics is a critical aspect of our business.

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GSP DRUMS AND PAILS (PTY) LTD SELLING & COLLECTING OF:

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“Considering that supply and service is a key differentiating factor within our organisation, we rely heavily on strategic partnerships and exceptional service level agreements to ensure the consumer gets his or her product on time and in full.”

Looking ahead, it is Botes’s priority to ensure that this differentiating level of quality and service remains

front and centre of Southern Oil in everything it does.

Whether it be developing the B-Well brand, growing the value-added wing of the business or ramping up overall production capacity, the Commercial Director is confident that the company’s uncompromising standards will remain.

He signs off by stating: “Focusing

on training and upskilling our staff is a critical factor in the growth of the organisation. Although Southern Oil is based in Swellendam, it is still competing in an international market with ever growing competition from international players.

“Innovation is also a key priority for the business. Innovation is not only centred around new and unique development, but also consists of incremental changes to improve efficiencies and effectiveness. We need to continuously question the norm, evaluate our business model, procedures and the fundamental way we do business.”

Southern Oil Tel: +27 (0) 28 514 3441 info@soill.co.za www.soill.co.za

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TheDenim Difference Firemount Group is helping to drive economic diversification and spearhead sustainability in Mauritius with its premium, tasteful, tailor-made textiles Writer: Jonathan Dyble | Project Manager: Callam Waller

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small island state off the coast of southeast Africa that’s home to just 1.3 million inhabitants, Mauritius may not seem like much of an economic powerhouse on the face of it.

Yet a quick glance at the World Bank’s national overview will reveal a country that has made great strides since gaining independence in 1968, so much so that it now stands as one of the continent’s few upper-middle income economies.

Its ongoing success can largely be attributed to the government’s progressive efforts – efforts which include the launch of a public infrastructure programme, ongoing support to the tourism industry and a

In order to stay ahead of the curve, Firemount Group makes timely updates to its entire production chain.

As a result, the company has invested $95 million in the last eight years, ensuring its set up is ultramodern, effective and efficient

general emphasis on diversification.

As a result, a thriving private sector has emerged, with numerous businesses having come to the fore in recent years.

“This economic diversification policy has allowed Mauritius to establish itself as a manufacturing and exporting location, and maintain its image as premium tourist destination,” explains Anil Kohli.

“Although it may not seem like it at first glance, our isolated location in the Indian Ocean is often a benefit rather than a hinderance – we’re not landlocked like many other African countries.”

Kohli himself has helped to champion the national vision.

Currently standing as the Director of Firemount (FM) Group, a company that is playing a major role in putting Mauritius on the global map as a textile specialist, his team have become renowned for providing value-added, quality, authentic denim fabrics and garments to leading international brands.

“We’re proud to be helping to give this paradise island a new identity, providing a vital boost to national trade as a one-stop textiles shop and pivotal player in the international fashion supply chain,” Kohli adds.

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Keeping pace

Competing in what is undoubtedly a global fashion market does come with its challenges, however.

“The industry has experienced an acceleration of global cost competition and shrinking business margins,” Kohli explains.

“Producing for the basic mass market from Mauritius is not competitive nor viable when you’re up against the Asian giants. As a result, to sustain and remain in the industry long term, we’ve recognised that it’s highly essential to supply to high-end, niche markets.”

AN INTRODUCTION TO FIREMOUNT GROUP Firemount Group is vertically aligned, comprised of two business units: Firemount Textiles Ltd Established since 1987, the core strength of Firemount Textiles Ltd is the production and supply of premium denim garments. Excelling within its field, the company has become a benchmark for quality and versatility, catering to the needs of a number of leading brands with its world-class collections.

FM Denim Co Ltd FM Denim Co Ltd is in the business of converting fibres, mainly cotton as well as manmade fibres, into yarn and value-added premium denim fabrics for the high-end market. Launched following the acquisition of a denim mill in mid-2010, FM Denim Co Ltd has helped to transform its parent company that now stands as a one-stop shop serving leading fashion brands across the globe.

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This in itself has been no easy task, the Director quick to cite the company’s dedicated workforce, passionate culture and premium products as key differentiators that have ensured it maintains its premium status.

“The other distinct feature of FM Group is our ability to keep pace with change,” Kohli adds. “It’s why we acquired FM Denim in mid-2010.”

Consisting of a 300,000 square metre facility that is capable of producing 12 million metres of denim fabric on an annual basis, FM Denim and its 575 employees have allowed the company to react quickly to changes in the market while maintaining cost effectiveness.

“Of course, keeping pace with change also requires timely updates to the entire production chain, from fibre to finished garment,” Kohli continues.

“It’s something we acknowledge, reflected by the $95 million that we’ve spent in the last eight years on enhancing our set up, making it ultramodern.”

Spearheading sustainability

Moving forward, such investment levels will be sustained, Firemount Group currently gearing these towards the enhancement of its fabric finishing techniques in order to produce more eco-friendly, green products.

“Sustainable manufacturing is very much a focus for us at the moment,” Kohli affirms.

“While we’re proud that our products help to cater to the livelihood of thousands of people across the globe, we are aware that such activities have an adverse impact on the environment. Because of this, FM Group has embarked on a journey towards becoming a responsible, profitable group by helping to preserve our blue planet.”

This journey consists of three core aims, the company striving to produce every unit of fabric in a responsible and

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ARCHEMICS LTD

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ulcra Chemicals is a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative specialty chemicals for the fibre and textile trade by creating added value for its customers together with solutions that determine the look, touch, feel and adding functionality to our customers’ materials, delivered by our team of 300 engineers from 14 locations across the globe.

With more than 135 years of experience and partnering with customers, Pulcra is providing the industry with application and processing solutions for effects, sustainability and efficiency.

Pulcra is headquarters in Geretsried (Munich), Germany, with 30 years of collaboration with Archemics Ltd, based in Mauritius.

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“The other distinct feature of FM Group is our ability to keep pace with change”

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sustainable way; provide its customers with the right quality denim at the right time to help them grow their business; and adhere to initiatives which promote the efficient, sustainable use of resources.

Looking at Firemount Group’s current efforts, it’s clear to see that the firm has already made great strides down each of these avenues.

Procuring yarn made out of recycled plastic bottles and sourcing eco-friendly chemicals are two such initiatives on this eco-agenda.

“Our strength lies in our ability to continuously innovate and develop the products that maximise value for customers while reducing our impact on the environment”

A RESPONSIBLE MANDATE Firemount Group has developed numerous products as well as concepts in its commitment to achieving sustainable production. These include: > Its 2025 Denim product range which consumes less than 10 percent of water during production. > Products made out of yarn produced from recycled plastic. > Fabric created from spinning process waste. > A denim product made from recycled cotton (currently in the pilot stage). > The promotion of BCI (Better Cotton Initiative), a non-profit organisation that grows cotton in different areas of the World, supporting farmers in building better working and living conditions. > Continuous efforts over nine years to protect the environment from its operations across raw materials, chemicals, machinery, production processes, and products.

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Meanwhile, investments have also been made into more energy efficient machinery, so much so that the FM Denim facility has managed to reduce its relative carbon emissions by more than 50 percent in the past six years.

“Innovation is finally meeting sustainability,” Kohli continues.

“Our strength lies in our ability to continuously innovate and develop the products that maximise value for customers while reducing our impact on the environment.

“In an era where saving the planet has become a global crisis, we know how important it is for our strategic approach to be focussed on

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developing and promoting sustainable and ecological products.”

Looking ahead

This responsible approach equally translates into social benefit, Firemount Group readily offering attractive packages to its staff as part of its wider empowerment ethos.

Those that are first to benefit from this modus operandi are often Mauritanian nationals, owed to the firm’s policy of always looking for indigenous talent at the first instance.

“If the required skill is not available locally, we hire expatriates,” explains Kohli. “This balances the expertise

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Increase your productivity with Sewing Machines made by Brother DDG is committed to increasing productivity and efficiency in the textile industry through innovative chemical solutions. Together, we can create a positive impact not just for our partners, but for the world.

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Improving production efficiency, conserving energy and re-using process waste are all priorities for Firemount Group

required to supply for the upper end market with community upliftment, while relevant training through various modules enhances the retention of our important human resource.”

Traditional CSR is also proactively pursued by the company. Kohli continues: “CSR has always been part of

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our corporate agenda, and remains so to this day, with the government having structured this particular aspect of late.”

All things combined, from product excellence to sustainable investment and social empowerment, Kohli is confident that Firemount Group will continue to excel as a leading

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Mauritian business moving forward into the next few years.

Pointing to the country’s bright future, owed to its economic diversification and increasing incorporation of best practices, evidenced by the manufacturing sector, the Director’s concluding

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statements are buoyant.

“To reiterate, we’ll continue to work towards our journey of preserving the blue planet,” he states.

“This will be coupled by clear plans for widespread cost improvement, enhancing the scale of our operations, better negotiations during purchases,

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investment in a modernised production setup, energy and resource conservation, reduction and reuse of process waste, as well as logical investment in equipment.

“We are very clear about our key priorities and are excited to see what the future holds.”

Firemount Group Tel: +230 2067999 fm@firemount.mu www.firemount.mu

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TA N Z A N I A I N T E R N AT I O N A L C O N TA I N E R T E R M I N A L S E R V I C E S ( T I C T S )

The Gateway to East, Central and Southern Africa Tanzania International Container Terminal Services continues to enhance its offering to importers and exporters passing through the busy hub of Dar es Salaam. CEO Jared Zerbe fills us in Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Callam Waller

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anzania, one of Africa’s most beautiful countries, has enjoyed a decade of solid growth and is a nation looking forwards.

The election of John Pombe Magufuli as its fifth president in October 2015 heralded a period of renewed focus on tackling corruption, enhancing public administration and managing public resources for improved social outcomes, an agenda which has produced some positive results.

For instance, poverty rates continue to fall, the 26.8 percent figure recorded in 2016 down from 34.4 percent in 2007, while public spending as a proportion of GDP is set to rise to 9.1 percent for 2018/19, a marked increase on the 5.5 percent seen in the previous period.

Investment geared towards making Tanzania more business-friendly is also bearing fruit.

According to the World Bank, the East African country ranks solidly in the middle of Sub-Saharan nations when it comes to the ease of doing business, above the likes of economic powerhouse Nigeria.

Drill deeper into the findings, and Tanzania stands out when it comes to processes surrounding imports and exports, an important factor in the overall ease of doing business ranking.

For example, implementing the Tanzania Customs Integrated System (TANCIS), an online portal for downloading and processing customs documents, has reduced the time it takes to import and export from the country and land-linked countries, a move which has made it the fastest subcontinent destination in the area of border compliance (for imports).

Central to Tanzania’s appeal as an importing and exporting hub is the Port of Dar es Salaam.

A prominent gateway in and out of the continent, its profile has risen markedly over recent years,

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TANZANIA INTERNATIONAL CONTAINER TERMINAL SERVICES (TICTS)

with companies such as Tanzania International Container Terminal Services (TICTS) playing a lead role in attracting greater volumes of traffic.

“Dar es Salaam is the major commercial port for local and transit import and export activity in East Africa, as more than 90 percent of the containerised traffic going in and out of the country is handled here,” comments Jared Zerbe, CEO of TICTS. “In addition, it is geographically located in a very strategic position and provides a gateway to six of the land-linked countries in East, South and Central Africa. This is shown in the statistics, as some 40 percent of the cargo handled at Dar is for transit countries.”

For Zerbe, who has served as CEO for around three years, the ongoing journey of TICTS instils a tremendous sense of pride and passion for a country he has fallen in love with.

“I had spent a lot of time in Tanzania

previously on port investment projects and I really started to admire the country,” he continues, speaking to Africa Outlook 18 months on from our last conversation. “It’s such a beautiful place with amazing beaches and other outdoor wonders.

“It has been an inspiring journey so far. We have completely restructured the company and improved so many areas, especially looking at process mapping for all our departments and operations to reduce bottlenecks and improve efficiencies, as well as overall professionalism. I am truly proud of the team here.”

Indeed, the 2017/18 period saw overall container throughput increase by an impressive 18 percent, while 2018/19 (still ongoing) has witnessed a four percent growth.

Such upticks in business Zerbe attributes not only to the increased operational efficiency, but also cooperation from the government, Dar es Salaam is one of Africa’s busiest ports

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activity which has not gone unnoticed by the likes of the World Bank, which notes upgrades to the Port of Dar es Saleem in its Ease of Doing Business survey.

As the largest specialised container terminal in Tanzania, TICTS manages the container handling activities at berths eight, nine, 10 and 11 and the inland container depot at Kurasini, handling more than five million TEUs since the turn of the millennium.

“We are growing along with the port, which is currently in the middle of the maritime gateway expansion project,” adds Zerbe.

“This involves the ongoing rehabilitation of berths one to seven, upgrades reflecting the future vision for the container terminal which is to accommodate Post Panamax vessels.

The ongoing expansion is also aligning with TICTS operations, especially with capital dredging which means heavy drafted vessels above 10.5 metres can also be handled without restrictions.”

Powering progress

Such TICTS operations have involved implementation of technology to create a more efficient experience for customers.

For instance, it is integrating a mobile application made by Hutchinson Ports called ubi, extracted from the Latin word ubique, which translates to everywhere, meaning it will be available in all Hutchison Ports terminals around the world.

The technology incorporates features that will enable carriers, service providers and yard operations to have greater visibility, improved efficiency, enhanced decision making and further automate the myriad processes involved in terminal, container storage and hinterland operations.

Ubi will be able to process information enquiries for quayside operations, landside operations, gateway terminals for truckers, consignees and shippers.

Truckers will know when their box is ready for collection and they can pay

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TICTS has handled more than five million TEUs at its inland container depot in Kurasini, Tanzania since the turn of the millennium

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“It has been an inspiring journey so far...

I am truly proud of the team here”

using the app, a process which will save time from queuing to physically pay at on-site billing offices.

The new app will also monitor vessel productivity and include a truck appointment system to streamline gate operations, reducing dwell time for drivers.

On the human side of the business, the appointment of a new Head of Human Resources and Administration has provided another series of benefits.

Zerbe comments: “There has been massive impact, especially in the way we have implemented performance

management within the company – we have increased engagement and dialogue between management and staff as well as between supervisors and their teams.

“This has resulted in a better rewards process with good performance and increased significantly the professionalism of our team.”

Over the next year, Zerbe plans to combine these technological and staffing breakthroughs with further expansion of facilities and capabilities, starting with the removal of old TPA decommissioned quay cranes to create

additional berth length at quayside.

“I want us to become a one-stop shop where all the documentation can be processed prior to accepting a truck’s entry to the terminal,” he adds. “This will help with customer retention, and continued process mapping of departments in the company will improve overall performance and efficiencies.

“I am also confident about the future of Tanzania. The country’s aim is to reach middle class economy status by 2025, and the port here at Dar es Salaam is an essential element in achieving this goal and aligning with the nation’s industrialisation strategy.”

Tanzania International Container Terminal Services Tel: +255 22 2134056/7/8 www.ticts.com

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Keeping SA on

TRACK S Naledi Rail Engineering has been providing South Africa’s railway industry with engineering expertise since 2004, a vital pool of knowledge given the government’s plans to develop the sector Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Josh Mann

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outh Africa is home to the continent’s most developed and largest rail network.

According to the latest available figures from the World Bank, the country houses almost 21,000 kilometres of usable rail track (2017), while the government has announced plans to invest R900 billion by 2027 on transportation infrastructure, of which rail is a critical part.

However, while this form of transport is rightly seen as a key enabler for South Africa in the future, there are some hurdles which need to

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be overcome.

For example, the USA’s International Trade Administration (export.gov) has identified a shortage in capacity both at a passenger and freight level that needs to be overcome if the industry is to maximise its potential and become what is labelled a ‘best prospect industry’.

Further, project implementation has been slow and may be reviewed to ensure good governance and sustainability, while internal inefficiencies and administered rail tariffs have made competing against

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THE NALEDI VISION Naledi Rail Engineering operates under the following guiding principles: “From inception, the vision of Naledi Rail Engineering has been to become the foremost provider of rolling stock in Africa, as a top level BBBEE company. We also work to make sure we are the most superior, affordable, reliable and sustainable company in our industry.

“Naledi Rail Engineering’s vision has evolved to include the manufacturing of new trains with the latest technology. We are also working to expand our reach beyond Africa and are striving to become the supplier of choice by partnering with companies across the globe.”

road freight difficult.

But, despite the challenges, opportunities are also aplenty, not least in the form of projects like that at Tambo Springs in Gauteng. Due to be fully commissioned by 2022 and valued at $15 billion, this is a multimodal rail, road and air hub that will present significant cost efficiencies and freight capacity increases.

Expanding South Africa’s rail network is not the only way in which the industry will continue to develop and modernise.

Engineering and maintenance

of the trains themselves is equally important, and this is where Naledi Rail Engineering takes centre stage.

Founded in 2004, the company is based seven kilometres from Oliver Tambo International airport in the East Rand, within close range of the Sandton area including Johannesburg CBD. It provides general overhaul, upgrades and minor repairs to stock across the continent, and to date has repaired in excess of 477 motor coaches and plain trailers for PRASA and presently employs around 200 dedicated members of staff.

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Naledi Rail Engineering is also a BBBEE Level 4 and SABS registered company, operating with the stated goal “to give the rail industry a better alternative and local source for all railway engineering needs”.

Indeed, such is the company’s commitment to quality, it maintains a philosophy of zero defects, aiming to complete jobs correctly first time, every time.

This dedication is backed up by ISO 9001 accreditation, a globally recognised certification which validates management processes – systems put in place by the firm’s

executive team which between them hold more than 125 years of experience in the rail industry. This includes CEO Wahed Rasool, who started his career in 1987 at Transnet and carries significant expertise in electrification, project management, risk profiling and risk management for rolling stock.

“Quality of product and services is of great importance to the Naledi Rail Engineering team,” Naledi states. “We understand that poor quality products can cost you in the long run and we work hard to maintain the highest standard of quality products by using only the best technology.

KANSAI PLASCON

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outh Africa’s rail industry is on track to receive a major facelift with potential investment from both international and regional development agencies looking to revive the neglected surface transport industry in Africa.

“We are seeing increasing signs that SA’s rail industry is undergoing a revival – for example, TransNet’s fleet renewal programme is well underway,” States Bavita Valab, Industrial Marketing Manager of industrial coatings specialist Kansai Plascon.

“Furthermore, various OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in the rail sector have been pitching to supply new rail rolling stock further to tenders announced at the 2010/2011 Department of Transport conference.”

Plascon is poised to boost train longevity amidst this growth.

The continent’s largest and most developed rail network can be found in South Africa

The company’s rail coatings range features products for locomotives, coaches, wagons and bogies. The products have been developed after extensive research and development

by Plascon, resulting in versatile rail coatings that keep trains on the go and minimise the need for coatings maintenance.

Plascon is no newcomer to the rail coatings industry. It was in back in the 1970s that it manufactured its first custom-designed rail coating in South Africa. Since then, the company has developed an extensive industrial rail product range as part of its innovative approach to development.

Naledi Rail has repaired close to 500 motor coaches and plain trailers

This includes water-based and solventbased products, including:

The company operates with a goal “to give the rail industry a better alternative and local source for all railway engineering needs”

Weld-through shop primer, anticorrosive primer, 1K epoxy primer, emulsion topcoats, d2m (direct to metal) topcoat, heavy-duty bodyguard topcoat, water-based polyurethane and tin-based topcoat, rust-inhibitive epoxy primer and polyurethane enamel topcoat.

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“Our commitment to producing the highest quality performance is twofold, giving you a guarantee of both high-standard products and excellent service. The Naledi Rail Engineering team values your loyalty to our brand, and this motivates our desire to perform at our best.”

Among its loyal customers are major rail industry players, including commuter rail service provider PRASA, Shosholoza Meyl, a division of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa that operates long-distance passenger rail services, and Metrorail, responsible for transporting up to two million passengers daily in Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.

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A landmark project which showcased Naledi Rail Engineering’s expertise involved rebuilding a series of coaches for the latter of these three clients.

Severely damaged by fire, Naledi’s team was able to cut off the burned

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sections and build new coaches on the existing underframe, one of many examples of work which has also included reprofiling train wheels, building armoured cars and equipping locomotives with the latest technology.

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Developing talent

Such work is carried out by skilled engineers, the development of this knowledge being another critical focus for the company. Since 2014 it has been running a training programme to help develop local talent within the railway engineering arena, not only providing employment opportunities to South African citizens but also gearing up the industry for expansion and development.

“Our employees are all experts

opportunities for black graduates within the industry. As a result, we work to place them alongside experienced qualified technicians as on-site mentors.”

A key part of this training involves adherence to strict safety standards, the company conforming to all rail safety regulations across maintenance procedures.

“Naledi Rail Engineering strives to be the most reliable and sustainable railway company in the industry and safety is in railway engineering and are well therefore imperative,” the firm adds. equipped to deal with any challenge “Whether we are producing passenger presented to them,” Naledi states. or freight stock, we understand the “The Naledi Rail Engineering workforce value of what is being transported.” is incredibly diverse with employees of This attention to detail will no doubt all demographics being represented. serve the company (and indeed the “Employees are a vital element wider industry) well in the coming to any business and Naledi Rail years as South Africa steps up its Engineering understands that focus on developing world-class rail nurturing our employees is of great infrastructure. As projects such as benefit to both our business and Tambo Springs come to fruition, the yours. Part of the mission of Naledi likes of Naledi Rail Engineering will only Rail Engineering is to create more become busier.

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Ghana’s Fuel FUTUREPROOFING

St Louis Petroleum is building up the nation’s storage capacity in order to keep pace with growing levels of oil production, the company also determined to develop in-country skills Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Eddie Clinton

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hana is a relative newcomer to Africa’s oil production stage.

Producing just 1,400 barrels per day (BPD) in 1994, today paints a wholly different picture, with current output sitting at 214,000 BPD and set to double by 2021 thanks to a new discovery by Norway’s Aker Energy ASA in the west of the country.

The last year alone has seen a significant ramping up of activity. In

June 2018, for example, oil production sat at 160 BPD, meaning today’s figures represent a rise of about a third in the space of 14 months.

If Ghana is to truly realise such potential, however, investment is needed elsewhere.

Post-production processes such as refining and storage are in danger of being left behind, something which St Louis Petroleum and CEO, Nana Kwame Nkansah II are all too aware of.

“I worked for Shell in Ghana for about 10 years, and it was here where I got to understand the challenges facing the country’s oil and gas industry,” he recalls, having joined St Louis Petroleum in 2014.

“I saw there was a great need for storage facilities for these products, which would tremendously help the process of distribution to the people and businesses that need them.”

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Storing the future

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Indeed, building up Ghana’s fuel storage capacity is the company’s raison d’être.

St Louis Petroleum is known for its record of building tank farms where refined fuel can be stored for onward distribution to oil marketing companies, and in the Ahanta West Municipality of the nation’s Western Region, an enormous project is about to get underway.

Valued at around $300 million, this new storage facility will be able to house 62,000 cubic metres of petroleum products, making it the second largest of its kind in Ghana.

“The major reason for undertaking this is to make available more storage for companies and their products that they bring into the country,” adds Nana Kwame Nkansah II. “This will make doing business here more attractive for these companies, as it

will cut down on additional costs such as docking ships and other transport.

It will also allow organisations to plan ahead of time.”

German engineering giant thyssenkrupp has been contracted by St Louis Petroleum to build the tank farm, with phase one of construction slated to commence in October 2019 and expected to take around a year.

This will involve the building of the tank farm (consisting of seven separate tanks), the pipelines from the Takoradi Harbour to the project site, offices and accommodation facilities.

Phase two will predominantly consist of expansion works.

As well as creating 2,500 jobs and delivering a number of related transport infrastructure upgrades, the CEO cites several other key benefits of the project.

“One is the technology transfer into Ghana,” he says.

“We are a relatively new player in

the oil and gas industry and have only recently made major discoveries, so technology transfer becomes a major advantage for us. Another benefit is that storage will bring down the price of fuel per litre because it will be easier to distribute and plan for the future.”

Broadening horizons

Developing the Ahanta fuel storage facility is not the only activity being undertaken by the company at present.

Nana Kwame Nkansah II references other important ongoing developments, such as the building of fuel depots (smaller storage facilities) in every regional capital around Ghana, sites which will bring fuel closer to users.

Further, on the retail side, St Louis Petroleum is seeking to expand its network of 10 filling stations so that consumers can access fuel without

The potential here is huge, not least because there are still large areas of the country that have not been opened up for oil”

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utilising its extensive production skills to offer a full and bespoke range of editorial, design and marketing services via its new Outlook Creative Services division.

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having to travel long distances, while last year it launched its own brand of lubricant products to help vehicle owners look after engines and protect them against Ghanaian weather conditions.

Related to this is the plan to build what will be just the second lubricants blending facility in the country, a project again designed to reduce reliance on external expertise and build up Ghana’s own capabilities.

This ethos also extends to Yamoah’s employees. “We have a policy that runs through the whole company, which is to enhance human capital, and ensure that a chunk of our budget is dedicated to providing the training that our people need.

“This is the core of our vision as a company, and every year around 50 percent of our workforce are sent for external training to learn new skills which they can bring back into the organisation.”

Tel +233 (0) 303217310 E info@karelaoils.com www.karelaoils.com

“This trend must be reversed, and oil must be refined here, so we are investing in human capital and building up the skills needed to make this happen. Training is paramount, and this is why our German contracting partners will also be teaching our people how to manage our tank farm.”

By increasing vital storage capacity and investing in home-grown skills, St Louis Petroleum is helping to preserve the future of fuel in Ghana, ensuring it can make the most of its undoubted potential to be a major regional player in years to come.

Soon such learning activities will be Asked about his forecast for the able to occur at a new training centre in industry, the Chief Exec signs off Accra, a facility which the CEO hopes to bullishly. “Yes, I am very confident,” have operational by November 2019 and he says. “The potential here is huge, one which could be a gamechanger for not least because there are still large Ghana’s nascent oil industry. areas of the country that have not been “We are sending oil outside of Ghana opened up for oil. I therefore believe to be refined because the country lacks the future is very bright, but only if we technical expertise to manage refining build the storage facilities to match operations,” the CEO continues. production.”

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Growing for

Ghana CityDia is proving itself as a community-driven and peoplecentric retailer, the company seeking to build on its footprint of stores across Accra, Kyebi and Kumasi Writer: Tom Wadlow | Project Manager: Josh Hyland

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or centuries open markets and street vending have been the mainstay of Ghanaian retail.

Even today, street-based purchasing and over-the-counter shops account for around 95 percent of the sector, the remaining five percent categorised by what is known as organised, or formal retail.

However, the industry as a whole is a fast growing one, and the formal segment represents a huge opportunity to drive progress, an opportunity not lost on João Rente Correia, General Manager of CityDia Supermarkets (Ghana).

“There is room for expansion, as an ever-growing middle class and a large young urban population are driving forces for the growth of organised retail,” he explains.

“A more informed and critical customer, the demand for a continuous and sustained offer, quality assurance along the supply chain of the purchased products and a comfortable and accessible shopping experience will be the differentiators and catalysts for the development of formal retail in Ghana.”

CityDia, the result of a partnership between the Economic Distribution Company Ghana (ECODI) and international food retailer Dia Group, has been a leading force in this transition since it began operating in the country in 2016.

“The informal market does still play a very predominant role on the African continent and particularly in Ghana,”

Correia adds, “but, consistently, we are witnessing a transition from consumers looking for different options to make their purchases.

“The challenge is for retailers to make the same affordable offer in a comfortable and modern environment without losing the cultural identity of the open market, so present and cherished in Ghanaian consumer habits.

Two of CityDia’s employees at work

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CityDia was formed from a partnership between the Economic Distribution Company Ghana (ECODI) and international food retailer Dia Group

The company has been a leading force in driving the formal retail transition since it began operating in Ghana in 2016

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gripak Logistics Limited, a wholly Ghanaian company, was established in 2014 as the logistics and distribution arm of Agripak Holdings Limited, an integrated agri-business platform.

We are a leading supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables. The company processes, packages, and distributes produce to local and global brands including Citydia Shops, Servair Catering, KFC, Burger King, Shoprite, Game/Massmart, and Vidae Cafes.

We source fresh vegetables from our subsidiary, Agripak Farms, and other certified out-grower farmers. Our operational model hinges on three core values; QUALITY, CONSISTENCY, and STANDARDS. T +233 (0) 20 4004289 E info@agripakholdings.com

www.agripakholdings.com “The challenge is for retailers to make the same affordable offer in a comfortable and modern environment without losing the cultural identity of the open market, so present and cherished in Ghanaian consumer habits”

“Our goal was to bring in world-class methodologies and technologies, promoting a modern retail experience for Ghanaians and contributing to the development of the economy, namely by fostering employment. We want to be close to people and help improve lives.”

Medo wo ase – I thank you all

CityDia currently operates 17 stores, 15 of which are in the capital city Accra and one apiece in Kyebi and Kumasi.

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comfortable, hygienic and affordable shopping experience, these outlets stock a wide range of Dia-branded products (food and non-food) along with numerous other brands and fresh produce which is exclusively sourced through local suppliers.

Goods distributed via a central warehouse which receives, handles and dispatches items on a daily basis, an operation which, combined with those at head office and across the store network, relies on a dedicated cohort of 263 employees.

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“I want to thank this fantastic team that strives every day and goes above and beyond to ensure that our customers return, securing our joint growth and success,” Correia says. “I am very proud to share our victories, lessons learned and future challenges. Without them, it would not be possible.”

Correia, a retail veteran, joined the organisation in September 2018.

“I have been working in the retail industry for over 20 years and if there is anything that can be said about this industry, it is that every day is different and challenging,” he continues.

“Customers visit stores expecting to satisfy their needs and it is the responsibility of the various players to rise to the challenge and exceed their expectations. This is only possible with a well-developed, differentiated and innovative value offering, motivated teams and a focus on customer service.

“It is these characteristics that make me continue to feel passionate about

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Agripak Holdings Limited. We are a diversified farming, packaging and distribution, farming innovation solutions provider, and training institution operation in Ghana.

Our commitment is centered around providing clients with top-tier customer service and excellent quality fruits and vegetables with an emphasis on food safety.

We process and distribute a full line of bulk and packaged fruits and vegetables to meet your wholesale, retail, and foodservice needs.

We partner with our sister company, Agripak Farms, and other local growers and suppliers worldwide to maximise product availability and provide best-in-class quality.

We offer practical industrial training to Food Scientists and vocational trainees to build capacity in the food processing industry.

agripakholdings.com this industry. Being able to be part of the development of this industry, in a country with such huge potential as Ghana, was what made the difference when I decided to embrace this challenge.”

CityDia provides the perfect platform for Correia to impart his passion for retail.

Operating under the motto of ‘low price, better quality’, the company is working to provide not only value for money, but an attractive, comfortable and accessible shopping experience that is on the doorstep of communities all over the country.

For example, fresh meat products are now sold in several CityDia stores which are known for their cleanliness, providing an alternative to open markets which have historically monopolised these sales.

The primary motivator for Correia, however, is developing what he describes as a closeness to Ghanaian people.

45A Mahogany Street, Otinshie, East Legon, Accra Ghana Tel: 0507534342 / 0243539215 / 0302540675 info@agripakholdings.com

“With each opening we create jobs and contribute to community development,” he says. “Just as we want to be close to people, we also want to be part of that same community, reinforcing our social responsibility.

“We are currently identifying

institutions we can support which are located near each of our stores, so we can interact and contribute positively. Our aim is to give back to our communities and acknowledge the positive and loving way in which they receive us.”

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Bigger and better

Indeed, further store openings are front and centre of CityDia’s ambitious expansion plans.

This will be accomplished through new company-managed stores as well as franchised outlets, both in and outside of Ghana’s major retail market Accra.

“The franchise approach will empower Ghanaian entrepreneurs who want to invest in a successful business model and gain access to a trusted brand, supporting infrastructure and the retail knowhow,” explains Correia.

“We believe we can expand the CityDia brand and achieve our objective of being the largest retail chain in Ghana while improving people’s lives.”

Key to executing this strategy will be a new logistics base, a 20,000 square metre facility currently going through

TEAMBUILDING As well as expanding on the ground, CityDia has also been focusing on how to maximise the potential of its employees.

Among the developments implemented is a cross-board performance assessment, a system which has enabled the company to identify improvement opportunities, spot talent gaps and develop a continuous training programme.

“We are also able to identify team members with the potential to meet new challenges with greater responsibility, allowing people to grow with us,” adds Correia.

“In addition to these very important milestones, we are preparing for the end of Q3 2019 the first general meeting with the entire team. This will be a crucial moment to foster a sense of belonging in each of us, share successes, learn from multiple experiences and prepare for the future together.”

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We believe we can expand the CityDia brand and achieve our objective of being the largest retail chain in Ghana while improving people’s lives”

the final design process.

Further, and no less important, is CityDia’s network of suppliers, companies which Correia labels as partners and long-term associates whose cooperation involves risksharing, agility, and flexibility. Such relations also foster innovation and exchanges of knowledge, processes which enable both parties to develop and grow together.

The premise behind this approach is a simple one, as the General Manager explains: “This is about ensuring that our stores are properly stocked to exceed our customers’ expectations.

“We may have the best-equipped warehouse in the world and flawless distribution, but if we don’t have an upstream supply chain that guarantees us a steady flow of goods, we will fail where we hurt the most – in our stores, letting down our customers.”

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CityDia’s network of suppliers enable industry innovation and exchanges of knowledge and processes, allowing all parties to grow together

“We may have the best-equipped warehouse in the world and flawless distribution, but if we don’t have an upstream supply chain that guarantees us a steady flow of goods, we will fail where we hurt the most – in our stores”

These are also customers who are becoming increasingly informed and critical of where they spend their money.

Thanks to the rise of smartphones and mobile connectivity, information is more readily available than ever before, a trend which is leading consumers to make judgements of product purchases that factor in experience and provenance as well as price.

Retailers must therefore stand out in several areas in order to capture the market, Correia also identifying social networking (word of mouth, social media) as an ecosystem that CityDia must continue to influence.

These are trends that fill the General Manager with optimism about the continued development and vibrancy of Ghana’s retail industry.

Despite facing challenges such as the economic backdrop, access to energy and limitations of consumer spending power, the opportunity to grow is still a genuine prospect, one which CityDia

is determined to help materialise as it continues to expand.

Correia concludes: “We want to systematise everything we have learned on our journey since 2016 together and in a sustained and realistic way.

“This means we will improve procedures and do things in a lean, efficient and intelligent way. We will provide our people with the necessary training, developing their skills and allowing them to contribute every day and have fun in doing so.

“This will ultimately allow us to leverage our expansion positively and bring the CityDia brand closer to more Ghanaians.”

CityDia Ghana Tel: +233 (0) 302 258 016 www.citydia.com.gh

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A platform for authentic conversation on African mining

EVENT DETAILS WHEN: September 24-25 WHERE: Gaborone, Botswana WEBSITE: www.grvglobal.com/AMS19

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THE FIFTH annual Africa Mining Summit (AMS), taking place in Gaborone, Botswana, is one of the only truly pan-African mining events where high-level delegates such as government representatives from established and emerging mining economies, mining executives, financiers and suppliers come together over a two-day period to engage in a series of highly focused thematic sessions and robust discussions.

Scheduled alongside keynote addresses and panel discussions is a number of networking events, a cocktail reception, cultural dinner, charity golf tournament and ‘matchmaking’ meetings, giving delegates

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the opportunity to engage directly on matters of mutual interest. This model allows for high-level as well as deep, authentic, conversations on mining in Africa, whether it be on financing the next project, engaging with the relevant ministry or identifying the breakthrough technologies available to safely and sustainably grow a business.

The AMS18 was described by our Patron, H.E. Albert Muchanga, the African Union Commissioner (AUC), as an institution growing from strength to strength. Supported by the AUC, the AMS is missioned to generate alignment and understanding between member states, ministers and ministries of mines and energy with the private sector investment community, and to join these key stakeholders in Africa to engage formally in developing and shaping exploitation of Africa’s continental and coastal natural resources and related industrial profile.

Come and join leading CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors and analysts for lively debates and discussions, gain valuable snapshots of projects and companies as well as insights into commodity market prospects, exploration hot spots and investment opportunities.

Please direct any enquiry regarding attendance, speaking or sponsoring to Glenn Fitzpatrick on +44 (0) 20 3817 5317 or GFitzpatrick@grvglobal.com

A TRULY PAN AFRICAN

MINING EVENT

AFRICA MINING SUMMIT

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GLOBAL MEDIA COVERAGE Book your place now: www.grvglobal.com/AMS19 or call 0203 640 8222

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Lagos gears up for eighth edition of popular power event

EVENT DETAILS WHEN: September 24-26 WHERE: Lagos, Nigeria WEBSITE: www.power-nigeria.com

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LAGOS IS set to host the eighth edition of the Power Nigeria Exhibition & Conference – West Africa’s largest power and renewable energy event.

This annual power and renewable energy event is widely recognised in the industry as creating an effective matchmaking platform and bringing together key stakeholders from across Nigeria and West Africa to meet manufacturers and suppliers from over 24 different countries – all of which will be displaying their products and innovative technologies to the Nigerian market.

The 2019 edition will bring together

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key delegations from regional government bodies and infrastructure and public utilities including The Federal Ministry of Power, Works & Housing; Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC); Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC); Eko Electricity Distribution Company; IKEJA Electric; Ibadan Electric Distribution Company (IBEDC), and others.

Also taking place during the exhibition is the much-anticipated Power Nigeria Agenda, a three-day CPD certified conference where industry leaders will discuss critical topics such as: • Customising existing power plants for the greatest ROI. • Capitalising on the digitalisation of Nigeria’s power sector.

• Deployment of financing and funding effectively.

• Key trends and change management in procurement performs.

Commenting on the free-to-attend conference, Deep Karani, Exhibition Director of Power Nigeria, said: “Over the past few years, our teams have worked tirelessly to ensure the Power Nigeria agenda focuses on innovations and advancement of the Nigerian power sector.

“The 2019 edition will discuss topics such as financing, procurement, digitalisation, renewable energy reforms, and more. The conference is set to reinforce Informa Markets’ commitment to actively cultivate Power Nigeria into the largest technology sourcing platform and create invaluable networking opportunities for international and local companies to connect, network and drive growth into future investment opportunities for West Africa.”

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Sharing best practice in the region’s mining industry NIGERIA MINING Week, in partnership with PwC, is sending a wide call for industry leaders to gather in October 2019 in Abuja, to share best practices and demonstrate the latest strategies to evolve the sector successfully.

The annual rendezvous for mining opportunities and investment in West Africa, Nigeria Mining Week will come back on the success story of 2018 and what has been done in the last 12 months. Learn about the latest developments with regards to the roadmap, towards a new paradigm in natural resource management – building a competitive and sustainable mining value chain.

This high-level and strategic mining investment platform will bring critical stakeholders together with Nigerian and international investors to drive the Nigerian solid minerals sector forward, with the vision to open up credible

EVENT DETAILS WHEN: October 14-16 WHERE: Abuja, Nigeria WEBSITE: www.nigeriaminingweek.com

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businesses opportunities and put Nigerian mining on the map.

Nigeria Mining Week will link investors, project developers, financiers, technology providers, and government and highlight an industry that in the future will become a driver of Nigeria’s economy.

What to expect in 2019:

• 180-plus mines and exploration companies • 40-plus sponsors and exhibitors • 75 percent C-level attendees • 1,200-plus attendees • 1,000-plus business connections • 24 countries represented

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Why attend?

• Meet and network with key players in the Nigerian mining space from both the private and public sectors.

• Understand the new government’s plans on the implementation of regulations and policies involved in investing.

• Access available sources of finance.

• Optimise your presence in an industry set to grow.

• Share experiences and voice your perspectives to government.

• Learn more about the latest techniques and services that can increase the productivity of your operations and reduce your expenses.

NIGERIA MINING WEEK,

THE KEY TO SHAPING THE NIGERIAN MINING LANDSCAPE 14 – 16 OCTOBER 2019, ABUJA, NIGERIA FINANCE MASTERCLASS

2-DAY CONFERENCE

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION

VIP TOUR

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Mines & exploration companies

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C-level attendance

BOOK YOUR SPONSORSHIP OR EXHIBITION OPTION kudakwashe.tsingano@spintelligent.com | T: +27 21 700 3588 Hosted by

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www.nigeriaminingweek.com

In partnership with

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E V E N T AFRICA AGTECH Expo and Forum, the latest international agriculture technology expo and conference to be held in Lagos, Nigeria, will be launched from October 15-16, 2019 by Spire Events, a leading global events company specialising in large scale conferences and expos.

This inaugural event aims to attract regional and global investors, government officials, agribusiness executives, agtech entrepreneurs, startups and farmers to network and learn about the latest technology innovations which are revolutionising the agricultural sector in Africa and beyond.

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Hosting the region’s leading agribusiness and technology providers

What to expect at Africa AgTech Expo and Forum 2019

Africa AgTech Expo and Forum 2019 has two separate conference days, with free-to-attend exhibitions, hosting the region’s leading agribusiness and technology providers.

More than 1,500 attendees and 50 exhibitors are expected to converge in Lagos for this flagship showcase.

Key government ministers and officials from Nigeria and beyond are also

expected to be at the event to share on the latest government agricultural policies.

Why Nigeria?

EVENT DETAILS WHEN: October 15-16 WHERE: Lagos, Nigeria CONTACT: Mahesh.babu@spire-events.com WEBSITE: www.africaagtechexpo.com

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Agriculture is Africa’s largest industry, contributing around 15 percent to its total gross GDP. Yet a traditional, manual approach to agriculture has kept yields below full capacity.

Nigeria is no exception, with a limited adoption of technologies being one factor behind the country’s challenges of rising food imports and declining levels of national self-sufficiency.

However, there has been concerted efforts by indigenous African companies and multinationals to bring smart farming technologies to Africa,

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and the impact is becoming visible across the continent, including Nigeria.

How to participate

You can either take part as a delegate or sponsor and exhibit at the event.

Reach out to us via email at Mahesh. babu@spire-events.com or call us at +65 6717 8500.

@AfricaAgTech1

AfricaAgTech

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Africa AgTech

AFRICA

15 - 16 October 2019 Lagos, Nigeria

www.africaagtechexpo.com

Exhibitors

Organised

AfricaAgTech

INTERNATIONAL

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THE INTERNATIONAL MINING and Resources Conference (IMARC) is where global mining leaders connect with technology, finance and the future.

Now in its sixth year, it is Australia’s largest mining event bringing together over 7,000 decision makers, mining leaders, policy makers, investors,

EVENT DETAILS WHEN: October 28-31 WHERE: Melbourne, Australia CONTACT: info@imarcmelbourne.com WEBSITE: www.imarcmelbourne.com

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CONFERENCE

(IMARC)

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Where global mining leaders connect with technology, finance and the future commodity buyers, technical experts, innovators and educators from over 100 countries to Melbourne for four days of learning, deal-making and unparalleled networking.

BHP, Gold Fields and Cardinal Resources are just some of the companies you can expect to hear from with the conference programme featuring over 300 global thought leaders covering the entire mining supply chain, from exploration, to investment, production to optimisation through to new technologies.

Asia will be a key focus for discussion within the brand-new Global Opportunities conference featuring ministerial addresses as well as highlighting investment opportunities and project updates. Alongside this

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are brand-new conferences on energy, the environment, workforce engagement as well as mine and plant optimisation.

Furthermore, the free exhibition will feature over 260 leading companies across the 12,000-squaremetre expo floor showcasing the latest mining projects, equipment and innovations the industry has on offer. Komatsu, Micromine, Murray Engineering, Lepidico, Startrace, Microsoft, Wirtgen and ThyssenKrupp are just some of the companies you can expect to meet.

CLAIM YOUR FREE EXPO PASS or receive up to further 10 percent off current early bird prices when registering with the discount code MA1200AO.

WHERE GLOBAL MINING LEADERS CONNECT WITH TECHNOLOGY, FINANCE AND THE FUTURE.

The International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) is where global mining leaders connect with technology, finance and the future. Now in its 6th year, it is Australia’s largest mining event bringing together over 7000 decision makers, mining leaders, policy makers, investors, commodity buyers, technical experts, innovators and educators from over 100 countries to Melbourne for four days of learning, deal-making and unparalleled networking.

BHP, Gold Fields and Cardinal Resources are just some of the companies you can expect to hear from with the conference programme featuring over 300 global thought leaders covering the entire mining supply chain, from exploration, to investment, production to optimisation through to new technologies. Africa will be a key focus for discussion within the brand-new Global Opportunities conference featuring ministerial addresses as well as highlighting investment opportunities and project updates. Alongside brand-new conferences on energy, the environment, workforce engagement as well as mine and plant optimisation.

Furthermore, the free exhibition will feature over 260 leading companies across the 12,000m2 expo floor showcasing the latest mining projects, equipment and innovations the industry has on offer. Komatsu, Micromine, Murray Engineering, Lepidico, Startrace, Microsoft, Wirtgen and ThyssenKrupp are just some of the companies you can expect to meet.

VISIT IMARCMELBOURNE.COM TO CLAIM YOUR FREE EXPO PASS, OR RECEIVE A FURTHER 10% OFF CURRENT RATES WITH THE DISCOUNT CODE MA1200AO 6TH ANNUAL

INTERNATIONAL MINING AND RESOURCES CONFERENCE + EXPO

Workshops: 28 October 2019 Conference & Exhibition: 29 - 31 October 2019 Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre Founding Partners

T H E

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To round off each issue, we ask our contributing business leaders for their views on the same question

What technology is helping to transform your industry and how?

Offer Gat Co-Founder and Chairman, DPO Group “Omnichannel payments technology is a significant advancement in the payments sector and provides enormous benefits to businesses. It combines multiple forms of payments, such as mobile money, cards, QR codes and bank transfers and allows consumers and businesses anywhere on the continent to make and receive payments from Africa and worldwide. The DPO system is capable of processing thousands of payments per minute and combines dynamic currency conversion with state-ofthe-art fraud and risk features. This advanced technology virtually allows an unlimited number of consumers to pay online and offline seamlessly.”

Morne Botes Commercial Director, Southern Oil “Technology is an ever evolving and developing field within the production environment. Although the core processes remain the same, the influence technology through the supply chain is leading to better efficiencies. This is what makes a commodity business like Southern Oil profitable.

The data management and information technology is also a key factor in understanding what we do and don’t do, and how to improve. Identifying problem areas, or areas where we can bring new innovation, blue sky thinking or incremental ideas, also gives us a clearer understanding of who our customers are and what they need.”

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Vikram Ramlochun CEO, Guardrisk Mauritius “I remember seeing an article where Mr Anthony Miller, the Co-Founder of South African startup Simply which designs and sells simple life insurance products, said he believed insurtech will leapfrog traditional insurance in the same way mobile has leapfrogged fixed-line, and mobile payments have leapfrogged traditional banking. I personally agree totally with his remarks and am glad to add that Guardrisk’s business model perfectly suits and supports insurtech principles, in the sense that our cells have the possibility of using external service providers, pricing their products, selling their products, administering claims payments and premium collections, and more.

In fact, Guardrisk embraced this concept a long time ago and has been successfully operating in this field.”

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Scott Johnston General Manager of Operations, Hitachi Construction Machinery Zambia “As you know, we are just at the start of the IoT revolution. Hitachi Construction Machinery is fortunate to have the parent company of Hitachi Limited, which is one of the global leaders in innovation. This allows us to provide the customer with innovative safety and production technology.

Some examples are our aerial angle object detection systems, trolley line guidance systems and ConSite for mining. Our autonomous haulage solutions are making great leaps and we recently made an announcement on how Hitachi intends to change the stereotype of autonomous haulage by making our system an open operating ecosystem.”

Are you a CEO or Director with a story to tell? Contact Africa Outlook now!

Safeguarding the future of businesses across the subcontinent...

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MONITOR ADMINISTRATORS

LEADERSHIP FOCUS VIKRAM RAMLOCHUN Vikramsingh Ramlochun is a fully qualified accountant and a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in the United Kingdom.

A CAPTIVE

GUARDRISK GROUP MAURITIUS

Safeguarding the future of businesses across the subcontinent

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Market

auritius is officially ranked the easiest place to do business in SubSaharan Africa.

According to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2019 study, the Indian Ocean island nation scores a competitive 79.58 out of 100, this total score covering aspects such as starting a company, registering property, paying taxes, acquiring credit, resolving insolvency, sourcing electricity and trading across borders.

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Guardrisk Group Mauritius, through its specialised offering of cell captive insurance and reinsurance services, is safeguarding the future of businesses across its home nation and further afield Writer: Tom Wadlow Project Manager: Sam Love

The ranking also means Mauritius is the 20th easiest place to do business in the world, something which fills Vikram Ramlochun, Managing Director of South African insurance group Guardrisk’s Mauritian business, with optimism.

“We are in one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and the country’s business environment and investment climate has also made it one of the most business-friendly destinations in the region,” he says.

Ramlochun’s career in the Mauritian global business sector spans more than 20 years, including his role as Managing Director of Guardrisk Group of Companies in Mauritius since 2011. He has extensive knowledge and experience in financial modelling, taxation, corporate governance, risk management and cell captive insurance, among other areas.

“Furthermore, Mauritius has emerged as an important platform between Asia, the Middle East and Africa for investment into the African subcontinent. The financial services sector, including the insurance industry, is an important economic pillar of the Mauritian economy and the insurance industry’s contribution to GDP is about three percent.”

Indeed, important progress at a legislative level has added even more impetuous to the nation’s insurance

HOW CAN YOU BENEFIT FROM OUR CELL CAPTIVE?

Further, Ramlochun serves as an Independent NonExecutive Director on the board of Cell Insurance Company in Zimbabwe which is a local insurance firm serving the Zimbabwean market.

“Guardrisk Companies in Mauritius are set up as global business companies and I took my chance of joining the team in 2002 as Finance Manager, as I was comfortable with the legislative and operational side of global business companies,” he recalls.

“I then grew to the position of Executive He is a member Director of Guardrisk industry, now recognised as a of the Mauritius however, his priorities squarely lie in Group in Mauritius Institute of with taking the Mauritian 2010business and Managing respected international finance centre.

Directors and Director in 2011.”

As of June 2019, reinsurance business forwards. also represents Guardrisk at continues to be taxed at three percent, In joining the firm in 2002, Ramlochun the Insurers arrived at a company which had already this having convinced the OECD about Association in Mauritius.

the country’s responsible approach to harmonising best tax practices between the local market and offshore market.

A Mauritian mainstay

Ramlochun is also optimistic about similar reform occurring in Guardrisk’s parent country South Africa –

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been active in the country for four years, the division officially setting up in 1998 and specialising in cell captive insurance and reinsurance services, provided through three licenses (Guardrisk International Ltd PCC, Guardrisk Life International Ltd and Guardrisk Insurance Management Ltd) in those early days.

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Why give away the upside of risk taking when you can reap the benefits thereof? At Monitor Administrators, we believe that you’re self-contained and we want to keep you in control, aligned to your risk appetite.

Simply put: Isolate your risk and enjoy the benefits.

How? Through our bespoke cell captive program.

OFF-SHORE OPPORTUNITIES We offer a facility whereby any insurance product sold or insurance costs incurred, outside of South African borders, may be placed in our cell captive with Guardrisk Mauritius.

LICENSING Cell owners have access to the cell captive insurer’s unrestricted license, and can write a wide range of insurance classes.

TURNKEY SOLUTIONS Why try and reinvent the wheel. We will help you figure out what’s best for you and your business.

A–Z ADMINISTRATION We will provide a complete solution, from A – Z; from discussing possibilities, to putting structure and compliance in place and administering the cell captive on a day to day basis.

PROFIT Our clients, with whom we partner within the cell captive space, have reaped substantial profit, which has contributed significantly to the bottom line of their businesses.

Through our partnership with Guardrisk Mauritius, Monitor Administrators offers bespoke international cell captive insurance solutions across the African continent.

Geared with state of the art IT system platforms and highly skilled and dedicated staff, we are market leaders in volume based financial insurance engineering.

Our personalised approach and decades of experience, translates into insurance solutions of distinction.

We’re the people who smooth the flow of business between broker and insurer, so you don’t have to.

Contact us to discuss your unique African insurance experience.

EFFICIENCY

HEAD OFFICE 45 Old Main Road, Kloof, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa Te: +27 (0) 31 818-0000 monitor@monitorsa.co.za www.monitorsa.co.za

Through our processes and IT structures, streamlined over the last 15 years, we are able to offer efficiencies in both cost and time savings.

TAILOR MADE SOLUTIONS We will structure each product within our cell captive so that it’s a unique offering to you.

Monitor Administrators (Pty) Limited is a licenced Financial Services Provider, FSP Number 17824

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ADMINISTRATORS

Guardrisk has told its story.

Now, why not tell yours? Our monthly magazine Africa Outlook is essential reading for business executives wanting to keep up with the latest in global news and trends affecting African businesses across all industries.

With a monthly coverage of over 185,000 readers, your company can take advantage of exposure in Africa Outlook with a FREE article and FREE digital brochure, as well as access to further digital and print-based marketing tools that could transform your business.

To share in this unrivalled opportunity, contact one of our project managers today!

www.africaoutlookmag.com/get-involved

Complementing the production of Africa Outlook, Asia Outlook and EME Outlook magazines, Outlook Publishing’s award-winning in-house team is now utilising these same specialist production

Outlook Creative Services

skills to offer a full and bespoke range of editorial, design and marketing services via its new Outlook Creative Services division.

For more information on how we can work with you in providing a plethora of completely flexible and customisable production services, please visit: www.outlookpublishing.com/creative-services

DESIGN:

E D I TO R I A L :

Stephen Giles +44 (0) 1603 959 656 steve.giles@outlookpublishing.com

Tom Wadlow +44 (0) 1603 959 657 tom.wadlow@outlookpublishing.com

Devon Collins +44 (0) 1603 959 661 devon.collins@outlookpublishing.com

Jonathan Dyble +44 (0) 1603 959 660 jonathan.dyble@outlookpublishing.com