Meet Asite at the African Construction Expo in Johannesburg

16-17 May 2018

Come along to the Digital Construction zone at the African Construction Expo being held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, Johannesburg to meet Adoddle. The cloud platform for seamless collaboration across disciplines, from Concept to Completion and Beyond.

With the welcomed news of the South African Government’s plan to spend more than R 940 billion (circa US $ 78 billion) on infrastructure development, it's forecasted that the construction industry can look forward to growth in 2018. In particular, social housing, renewable energy and roads infrastructure projects are expected to drive this development.

Meanwhile with mega housing projects worth billions of USD planned or under-way throughout the African continent, the construction market in Africa offers outstanding business and investment opportunities

There can be little doubt for anyone observing South Africa’s economy over the past few years that the times have been torrid indeed. It seemed that it would take a miracle for the country to emerge from the doldrums – but emerging from the doldrums it is.

The demise of Jacob Zuma and the installation of Cyril Ramaphosa have awakened a new sense of optimism. The Rand strengthened and levels of confidence are rising.

Rob Wessels, acting CEO of South African cement manufacturer AfriSam, highlighted that there were some green shoots in the industry, with construction and materials companies reporting cautious optimism.  "This is not a quick fix", he said. “But there is renewed optimism and when there's optimism, suddenly people feel more confident."

To support this optimism, a recent article by Tom Head published in South Africa the Good News quotes Goldman Sachs declaring that: “South Africa will be the big emerging market story of 2018.” He continues: “Goldman Sachs are the world’s third-biggest investment bank. So they know a thing or two when it comes to picking out a country with massive ’emerging market’ potential. And right now, they’re championing South Africa.

Why is South Africa the big emerging market story? Cyril Ramaphosa has always been seen as the ‘business-friendly’ candidate for leadership. And in his first months as ANC President, he is getting things done. With interest rates reportedly lowering, it seems like Cyril Ramaphosa is going to make good on his promise of opening South Africa up to investors.

In addition, the Government’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are offering incentives to attract investment. SEZs, geographically designated areas of the country set aside for specifically targeted economic activities, are supported through special arrangements and systems that are often different from those that apply in the rest of the country. SEZs are growth engines towards government's strategic objectives of industrialisation, regional development and employment creation.

Finally, South Africa has good infrastructure, excellent banking, independent courts, competitive politics, a robust media, and an increasingly active civil society. And an enforceable constitution.

So, what of the rest of Africa?

In 2014 an article “Africa: A bright outlook for the dark continent” stated that: “Perceptions of Africa as a backward, undeveloped land of harsh terrain and dim prospects have been slow to change. The truth is that Africa has made significant advancements in recent years, and each incremental improvement unlocks the potential for future improvement. In stark contrast to the notion of a dark continent, Africa today is home to millions of bright, motivated people whose primary goal is to seek better lives for themselves and their families.

Africa is a continent of explosive population growth – such that between now and 2050, over half of the world's population growth will be in Africa and, by 2050, a quarter of the population will live on the continent.

Rapid urbanisation and population growth have led to an enormous housing backlog across the continent.  It is unsurprising, therefore, that there are mega housing projects being implemented across Africa. These are largely financed by Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), offering opportunities for investment.

In South Africa’s economic hub of Gauteng alone, the Mega Projects Initiative is taking off. This is a R100-billion economic corridor investment that aims to deliver more than 800 000 houses within 30 residential developments spread across the five development corridors in Gauteng. This too is a PPP project.

The 2017 edition of Deloitte’s Africa Construction Trends report includes 303 projects valued at US$50m or above that had broken ground by 1 June 2017. In total, these projects are worth US$307bn.

As a region, Southern Africa has the largest number of projects with 93 projects while West Africa remains as the region with the largest share of projects in terms of value, worth US$98.3bn. The projects included are spread between 38 of Africa’s 54 countries. South Africa is the single country with the most projects (44 projects) while Nigeria has the most projects by value (worth US$69.1bn).

Governments continue to be the largest owners of projects, owning between 57% and 90% of tracked projects per region, showing the importance of their role in providing critical infrastructure.

Governments also remain the single largest developers of infrastructure projects with Transport and Energy & Power dominating. Real Estate follows as a close second or third in each region.

Outdated attitudes and perceptions about Africa frequently overshadow the continent’s attractiveness for investment. However, the disconnect between perception and reality has created significant opportunities for investors willing to roll up their sleeves and put boots on the ground.

So, like old age, investing in Africa is not for sissies, but the rewards are there for the taking for the bold and those with the stomach for the long view.

Current multi-billion projects in Africa include:

About Asite

Asite’s cloud technology gives everyone involved in construction projects access to key information online. It allows for increased collaboration, fewer mistakes, reduced rework, and time and cost savings. Asite’s Adoddle platform allows firms to store and manage all project data in one central and secure repository. It also enables customers to fully customize the structure of their content with highly controlled access and rich configurable workflows to allow project controls. The Adoddle platform is used by leading architecture, engineering and construction firms, as well as property owners world-wide to manage their largest and most demanding capital investment programs.

Adoddle helps people manage their projects and supply chains collaboratively, accessing the information they need, when and where they need it. It enables AECO companies to measure and track capital projects and asset operations.

Asite was founded in 2001 and is head quartered in London’s Tech City in the UK, with North American operations based in New York, and regional offices in Australia, India and South Africa. For more information, please

visit http://www.asite.com or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_uYAJvb2rk.