The emphasis on building new infrastructure in South Africa, as well as the rest of Africa, was to the detriment of the continent’s existing infrastructure, creating a maintenance deficit, Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) learning and development department head Eric Mahamba-Sithole said on Monday.

Speaking at a seminar aimed at tackling the skills challenges associated with infrastructure development in Africa, he referred to the World Bank’s Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostics study, which has revealed that about 40% of Africa’s infrastructure required maintenance.

The seminar hosted the first intake of students to the Pan-African Capacity Building Programme’s (PACBP)’s two-year Masters degree in public administration. The students, who are all government officials, hailed from across Africa and came to local soil to participate in a series of site visits to the operations of State-owned utilities Eskom, Rand Water and the South African National Roads Agency, as part of their training.

In 2010, the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), in partnership with the IDC and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), announced a R55-million capacity building fund to support the PACBP. AFD contributes 54%, while the IDC and DBSA fund the remaining 46%.

PACBP chairperson Prof Brian Figaji told Engineering News Online that the objective of the Masters degree was to improve Africa’s human capacity to undertake maintenance on the continent’s infrastructure, with the focus falling on enhancing the skills of government employees in municipalities and utilities in Africa.

He said the Masters degree was currently offered at the University of Pretoria (UP), the University of Dakar, in Senegal, and Uganda’s Makerere University Kampala in classes of 25 students. Besides these three countries, students hail from Mali, Cameroon, Mauritania, Rwanda, Burundi, Botswana and Ghana.

Figaji explained that UP had recently been assigned to develop the Masters degree into an infrastructure management degree, a process that would take two years to complete.

“We will then put the infrastructure management Masters degree through the [approval] process, which includes it being presented to the Council for Higher Education. It normally takes two to three years for universities to implement a new Masters degree.

“We aim to create a network of technically equipped professionals in Africa,” Figaji noted, adding that the second intake of students was expected at the end of this year.

The PACBP incorporates three legs, namely short courses, exposure to young professionals that are employed at municipalities and utilities, as well as a Masters degree in public administration.

AFD deputy CEO Jean Debrat highlighted that development banks, universities and governments in Africa would have to collaborate to find a solution to ensure sustainable infrastructure development on the continent.

He indicated that the PACBP was encouraging universities that offered the Master’s degree to form partnerships.

Debrat noted that the University of Dakar and UP were currently in discussions in this regard.

“We need to create a global dialogue between development banks. The next step would be co-financing...the role that Brics [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa group of emerging economies] will play will be larger,” he added.

Debrat’s comment came as Brics leaders would prepare to discuss plans at the Brics Summit this week in Durban to create a joint development bank, which would provide financing to emerging and developing economies for infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, Mahamba-Sithole put forward that the IDC was partnering with the Chinese Development Bank’s China-Africa Development Fund and electronics manufacturer Hisense to co-fund infrastructure development projects.

“This brings wealth and capacity to the PACBP,” he noted.