(For more news from the Reuters Africa Investment Summit, click
here)
* Outdated infrastructure remains huge challenge to business
* Companies forced to build roads, power/waste plants
* Infrastructure backlog needs $22 billion a year -AfDB
By Tiisetso Motsoeneng
JOHANNESBURG, April 18 (Reuters) – Companies betting on
Africa’s growing affluence are being forced to come up with
clever ways of doing business to get around the continent’s
dilapidated roads, shaky power supply and inept ports.
“If there isn’t a well developed distribution network in
place, many companies would take some of that obligation to get
the product onto the market themselves,” John van Wyk, Africa
co-head of private equity firm Actis, told the Reuters Africa
Investment Summit this week.
SABMiller not only runs a brewery in South Sudan but
the world’s No.2 beer producer also operates its own solar power
and waste-water treatment plants after decades of civil war left
the world’s newest nation with virtually no infrastructure.
“When we first got there in 2009 there was about 4
kilometres of tarred roads,” Mark Bowman, Africa regional head
of SABMiller told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit
this week. “We tend to be very self-reliant when it comes to
Africa. We make no assumptions about the environment.”
Continued…
