'Near term' holds good news for Africa's project sector

The southern Africa project
sector remains under
tremendous pressure in
light of ever-decreasing
commodity and oil and gas prices,
but Africa’s near future holds some
good news.
According to Professor Lyal
White, director for the Centre for
Dynamic Markets at the Gordon
Institute of Business Science,
whilst the outlook for Africa has
been significantly downscaled
from four years
ago the world
remains focused
on the continent
as a growth area.
“The near future
is the only way to
look at regions
– and it means
anywhere from
18 months to the
next four years,”
he said. “The drop
in commodity
prices has really changed
the outlook and the
dynamics on the
continent as well as
the key countries on
which we have focused
in the past few years.”
He said Angola and
Nigeria were poised as
Africa’s great success
stories but this picture had
drastically changed thanks
to the oil price.
“Whilst Nigeria is still the
largest economy on the continent,
it has a serious liquidity problem.
Angola also will not see the growth
expected.”
But, he said, despite the markets
changing drastically Africa
was certainly not the hopeless
continent that was depicted at the
turn of the century.
“The context of Africa has
changed. Between 2011 and 2013
incredible growth was seen and
Africa has become an extremely
important growth region
from a global
perspective.”
He said
whilst
growth outlooks were much lower
there would still be a lot of interest
and movement in Africa in the next
four years.
“It has just become less
predictable since 2014 and often
we are pretty much in the dark
about where Africa is going. It is
however important to remember
that the continent is young,
populations are swelling and the
workforce is growing.”
This, he said, was good news for
the project sector as governments
were increasingly having to look at
infrastructure investments.
“In Africa it is important
that we don’t look at the macro
picture only, because it is
the micro details that are
important. Africa is made
up of 54 different countries,”
said White. “If one looks
at each market separately
and individually in a more
contextual fashion then
one finds there is a lot of
opportunity for the
project
sector.”
INSERT & CAPTION
The near future is the
only way to look at
regions — and it means
anywhere from 18 months
to the next four years.
– Lyal White