The Airbus Group (parent of Airbus, Airbus Defence and Space and Airbus Helicopters) is committed to help develop aeronautical industries in Africa, because it believes that this makes good business sense. For the Group, Africa is defined as sub-Saharan Africa plus Morocco (with Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria grouped with the Middle East).

"We're here [Africa] to do business, but we want to support the African aeronautical industry, so that it will support our business, in the next decade," Airbus Group International VP Africa Vincent Larnicol told Engineering News Online at the Africa Aerospace and Defence exhibition on Thursday. "We want to support Africa, and hopefully, this means business for us."

"We focus on countries, countries we believe we should work with, [to] support and enhance their [aeronautical] ecosystems," he explained. Starting in the north-west, these countries are Morocco, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia.

"Our strategy is to strongly support and enhance the local, particularly private, entrepreneurship," he reported. "We believe in supporting entrepreneurs in these countries and training the future engineers, technicians and entrepreneurs in these countries. Our primary objective is to support the future [aeronautical] champions of Africa. We are on the verge of identifying those champions, who believe in our industry and who identify opportunities."

"We believe in a turning point in Africa," he highlighted. "We believe the level of development has reached the point at which people are interested in aeronautics and space. And Africans want to travel, want aeromedical services, and use satellite imagery for urban planning, like everywhere else. This is good for us!"

He also pointed out that African governments were adopting the same kind of business approaches already employed by governments in the rest of the world. And the growing African middle classes were demanding safe travel and safe cities. These all had consequences and benefits for the aeronautical sector.

Of the countries that the Airbus Group is focusing on, South Africa has a strong and well-established aerospace industry. Morocco has a significant aeronautical industry. Nigeria and Ethiopia are developing aeronautical industries, while Ghana and Kenya already have strong educational and skills training capabilities.

"This is the line of our strategy," affirmed Larnicol. "We want to support the aeronautical industry and the related educational and academic world in these six countries."