Can you please tell us about EGIS solutions drive to address infrastructure’s development and sustainability needs in Africa?
Egis’ business ethos is characterized by our unique ability to take the “long view” as an Operator-Developer which develops, structures and operates projects over a long period. The very nature of our shareholding and our long presence on the Continent are key competitive advantages in supporting this approach to develop infrastructure project in Africa.
On every project, we seek alignment of interest with local and international stakeholders, public and private (authorities, agencies, banks, communities, etc.) to deliver value-for-money proposals, and create a culture of “joint ownership” of public goods under our care.
Driving by our strong ethical and sustainable values, the nature of projects we develop and operate … are always in a sustainable way!
Africa is a very large continent, and the maturity of its infrastructure network is very different between each country. For instance, South Africa has a vast, mature, yet ageing, infrastructure network – whereas other countries have low densities of infrastructure or sharply accelerating infrastructure development measured as gross capital formation (GCF) as a percentage of their GDP. The approach to the Continent therefore requires a fine segmentation of the markets to develop tailored solutions for every project to be relevant.
Our contribution to sustainability is multi-pronged. Firstly, it is essentially focused at both transport and energy infrastructure for development/O&M activities – and also includes social infrastructure (schools, hospitals, etc.) in the engineering sector.
Furthermore, our main contribution to sustainability is three-pronged:
Egis has the expertise to drive sustainability at all stage of the development cycle of public infrastructure. For example, we can assist in the definition of the need (i.e. design, engineering, feasibility…) at inception on greenfield projects – while, at the same time, developing solutions to improve the efficiency, resilience and longevity of such assets – such as, free-flow tolling, smart on-street parking management or end-to-end asset management processes to improve traffic management and road maintenance.
Last but not least, our main motto is adaptability. We always try to customize our expertise in order to deliver maximum value-for-money and resilience of the assets over the long-run – by continuously blending our global practices to the Group’s deep-seated local knowledge developed over many years of operation on the Continent. .With this in mind, we systematically set up local companies and forge relationships with a broad ecosystem of partnering companies – both mature and emerging – and maximize “local content”. We consider it as a critical key success factors as far as sustainability is concerned as we wish to develop a local presence of our own for the long run. We always put great emphasis on both actual and meaningful local participation of the local economy in the value-chain, skills development and community participation as a means to ensure we remain at all times relevant and competitive.
How do you see the development and sustainability for PPP’s in Africa?
There are many opportunities to implement the PPPs in Africa to bridge both the infrastructure and funding gaps.
PPPs require planning, institutional capacity in the public sector. time, development funding and good governance to be successful. Many countries have now developed PPP Units – but there is still a way to go. The delivery of a large, consistent pipeline of PPPs has been slow to date in the infrastructure sector – more successful in the IPP (energy) segment. Greater support and coordination from African development finance institutions such as the AfDB or IFC or catalytic funds is required to ensure Governments on the continent access additional pre-development funding and expert advisory in order to push a greater pipeline of projects from pre-feasibility (OBC) to procurement stage.
At the other end of the spectrum, from a sovereign risk mitigation’s perspective, DFI and multilateral agencies such as MIGA or Afreximbank for instance shall play an even more pro-active role in providing instruments aimed at further de-risking the systematic risk associated with a lot of projects under review at pre-feasibility stage.
Africa offers great opportunities in Infrastructure development. Not only because of the lack of infrastructure, but also because of the continent economic and population growth.
Last but not least, more active coordination between the public and private sector is critical to improve planning capacity, programme and project management and allocation of risks to increase the churn rate of projects from pre-feasibility to procurement stage.
What are the current priorities for Egis? What are the key sectors Egis is focusing on with regards to a sustainable and resilient infrastructure development?
Egis is focused on accelerating the growth of its footprint on the Continent in an incremental fashion across the infrastructure spectrum, industrial partnerships and select acquisitions to gain scale are also on the cards.
Being a multi-disciplinary engineering Company, a long-term Operator and a financial Sponsor with a large balance sheet and a stable shareholding and independent from any specific contractor, Egis has the ability to pursue and undertake a wide variety of projects – both brown and greenfield. Therefore, we approach the future of our expansion in Africa with full confidence!
We are committed and dedicated to the development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. The PPP model being inherently resilient and sustainable through its capacity to frame and delivery balanced projects from a technical, operational and financial perspective, we will always prioritise this type of project. Our focus will remain the operation and maintenance of large road infrastructure assets whilst applying renewed emphasis on the Continent on other sectors offering.
Can you please briefly tell us about EGIS?
Egis is a major international group in transport and mobility services sectors. Its global service range encompasses infrastructure consulting, engineering, project structuring, investment/ financing and operation. By developing innovative solutions for its clients, Egis takes full advantage of technology to respond to their needs in areas such as sustainable development, clean energy and the mobility of the future.
As regards transport infrastructure, Egis currently operates 44 contracts of roads and highways across a network of 4,400 km – including the operation and maintenance of specialized structures such as bridges, viaducts and tunnels (81 km of tunnels worldwide).
In the airport sector, the Group operates, maintains and develops a network of 17 airports around the world, handling more than 30 million passengers and 330,000 tons of freight annually. We are also active in the Rail, Port and Energy sectors – thus, delivering a wide range of services structured as PPP projects across the transport and energy spectrum.
