Partnering for growth in Africa

Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens, speaks during a press and analyst conference focused on the future of the German engineering giant on August 2, 2018 at Siemens’ headquarters in Munich, southern Germany.<br />Falling demand for gas turbines weighed on Siemens’s quarterly earnings Thursday, but the German conglomerate stuck to its confident outlook as it unveiled a major revamp to make its industrial divisions more profitable. / AFP PHOTO / Christof STACHE

By Joe Kaeser, President and CEO of Siemens AG

Many African economies offer huge growth opportunities for local companies and global players alike. Tapping this potential and promoting growth and prosperity on the African continent requires new, strong partnerships across borders.
Europe can play a crucial role in this.

However, that requires new ways of thinking, new ways of politics and strong, trustful collaboration with African societies.
It requires African solutions that create value in Africa for Africa.
According to an African proverb, “in the moment of crisis, the wise build bridges and the foolish build dams.”
There is no denying that we live in times of uncertainty and growing insecurity, in times that are increasingly shaped by nationalism and exclusion, by narrow interests and populism.
These are also particularly critical times for Africa’s development.
Nevertheless, Africa is a continent on the rise. African nations offer huge growth opportunities for local companies and global players alike.
Even countries that are not rich in natural resources have a big chance to drive solid future growth by forging local partnerships in infrastructure investment, using digital technologies, and – above all – ensuring sustainable skills development.

Building – in a symbolic sense – strong, sustainable bridges between Europe and Africa can make a major contribution toward meeting this goal.
Yet, Europeans too often ignore that this is the time to go for Africa, that this is the time to build new and stronger partnerships.
But fulfilling this partnership role requires a new way of thinking, new policies and strong collaboration with African societies.
Africa needs solutions that create value in Africa for Africa. For example, the continent has voracious demand for electrification and infrastructure.
The urban population, for instance, is growing faster in Africa than it is elsewhere.
As late as 1990, only 28 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa was living in urban areas.
By 2018, however, this figure had already climbed to 40 percent – and forecasts anticipate that more than one out of every two people will be a city dweller by 2050.
In other words: 30 years from now, more than 1.2 billion people in sub-Saharan Africa will be living in cities.
The infrastructure in place today was not designed to support so many people.
Ultimately, the task here will be to drive urban development in a way that is intelligent and sustainable – and make electricity and infrastructures affordable.

The journey to this destination will frequently involve co-development between the private and public sectors.
There are very good reasons to make business in Africa. This continent is home to some of the world’s most dynamic markets.
And Africa’s workforce is young. Half of the people living on the continent are under the age of 25.
According to projections, Africa will be home to one in five of the planet’s young people by 2040, and the size of its labor force will exceed 1.1 billion by then.
With a workforce of this magnitude, Africa has the potential to become one of the key players within the geo-economic order – provided that Africans can acquire the skills needed to actively shape this change.
In Africa, beyond the investments we make in our own employees, we closely collaborate with schools and universities across the length and breadth of the continent.
We will continue our commitment to Africa, ensuring that students are able to train on the most advanced Siemens technology available, such as industrial software.

Only recently, we announced various hand-overs of Siemens technology related to industrial automation. Such grants are providing 13 engineering faculties at universities and schools in countries including Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa with integrated engineering capabilities.
Making this cooperation possible is part of our commitment to contributing toward sustainable skills development throughout the continent.
Unlike some others, we share our knowledge and expertise, and we train and educate young people.
In other words: We invest for the long term and believe that playing an active role in skills development could enable locally engineered solutions to catalyze the industrialization of many African economies and trigger growth on an unprecedented scale.
In West Africa, for instance, we must help develop and enhance young people’s technical and entrepreneurial skills to prepare them to hold their own in tomorrow’s digital, knowledge-based global economy.
Another key challenge for West Africa is climate change