The most significant new space and area of “future hope” for construction and infrastructure projects, not just in South Africa, but Africa more broadly, will be cities, provided that local government can focus on effective infrastructure delivery procurement processes, says professional services firm Deloitte Africa infrastructure and capital projects lead Jean-Pierre Labuschagne.

Speaking at The African Construction and Totally Concrete Expo, in Midrand, in May, Labuschagne noted that connectivity and access to smart corridors in cities were some of the key drivers for further infrastructure growth.

“[Further,] urbanisation is creating the biggest opportunities for infrastructure investment, construction and growth, not just for a city and its citizens, but also within the economics of that country,” Labuschagne said.

He, however, did not believe that the infrastructure procurement processes were executed well, with government systems, particularly locally, that were not well-designed for large infrastructure projects. “The challenges are on delivery, as a significant amount of delivery takes place at a local government level, and it comes to the ability of municipal governments to have quality projects, project appraisal processes and procurement systems,” he said.

Labuschagne, therefore, suggested potential improved tender specifications, procurement processes, and project and procurement monitoring and evaluations within the existing governmental systems.

For the construction and cement industry to play a key and larger role in infrastructure development, infrastructure delivery needed a policy framework to guide the resource allocations and spending of public funds across the sector, while development planning in niches also needed to be realigned, he added.

Labuschagne reiterated that, from the findings of professional services firm Deloitte’s ‘Africa Construction Trends Report 2015’, the number of projects qualifying for inclusion in the 2015 survey had risen 17%, from 257 in 2014 to 301 this year.

“North Africa is certainly currently leading with new projects; however, Southern Africa is unfortunately lacking with the amount of new projects coming on line,” he said.

Nevertheless, Labuschagne believed that South Africa was effectively and sufficiently spending on infrastructure, with more than R2.2-trillion spent between the 1998/99 and 2014/15 financial years.

While the biggest infrastructure spenders include State-owned enterprises, such as Eskom, Transnet, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and the South African National Roads Agency Limited, spending in provincial departments and municipalities is also increasing, with a focus on the energy, transport, and water and sanitation infrastructure sectors.

This is also one of the greatest opportunities in terms of the private sector accessing and assisting in government infrastructure spend, according to Labuschagne.

The South African government had committed to spend more than R800-billion over three years on infrastructure development, such as new power stations, road networks, dams and water supply pipelines, rail and ports facilities, schools, hospitals and government buildings.

In an adverse global environment, the need for broad-based and efficient economic infrastructure is not lessened, but is increased, according to financial services group Nedbank Group South Africa senior economist Nicky Weimar.

“What we really need in Africa is the basic required infrastructure, as this is the only way that Africa will move forward and achieve key elements. “This is to reduce the cost of operating a business in Africa, improve the quality of labour, which will allow Africa to develop and to grow upstream manufacturing and services industries . . to decouple the continent from this hyperdependency on the global commodities cycle and help create far more diversified and resilient economies,” she stressed.

With forecasts that sub-Saharan Africa requires 40-million tonnes of new cement capacity alone to meet rising urbanisation and growth rates and the region’s population forecast to grow from 1.1-billion people in 2013 to 2.4-billion by 2050, the Africa Construction and Totally Concrete Expo was created to facilitate interactive exchanges of knowledge and to promote public and private sector collaboration within the industry.