(tass.ru) - The Russian-African partnership - suspended since Soviet times - is once again becoming relevant in the context of the global agenda. In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced the Russia’s willingness to strengthen bonds of trust with African states when he greeted the participants in the 11th International Meeting of High Representatives in charge of security issues.
While a few years ago, only a small share of the Russian companies were interested in the African continent and the majority focused primarily on the European Union, the potential of the region is now being discussed at the state level.
In the run-up to the Russia-Africa Summit that will be held in St. Petersburg on July 26 to 29, we would like to outline the African region’s most promising projects and technoparks selected together with experts, in which the Russian entrepreneurs can potentially take part.
“Green” energy and low carbon economy
At the moment, a number of large industrial and infrastructure facilities are under construction in Africa, and the countries of Europe, Asia and America take part in their implementation. Most of these projects relate to “green” energy and the development of low-carbon production. Irina Gaida, Deputy Director of the Project Center for Energy Transition at Skoltech, told TASS that one of the most promising areas of international cooperation today for Russian integrators of renewable energy sources (RESs) is, among other things, a pivot to African countries and the investments in joint projects. “Africa has become one of the main markets for the development of RESs due to its huge potential in the solar and wind energy generation. The Russian companies can take an active part in such joint projects, offering their technologies (including in small hydropower generation, electrolyzers, post-lithium storage systems) and their successful experience as integrators of solar and wind energy projects,” Gaida emphasized.
Thus, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a cascade of seven Grand Inga hydroelectric power plants is under construction with the investment of about $14 billion. Each hydroelectric power plant is designed to generate from 4 GW to 8 GW, reaching a total of 40 GW. It is assumed that the Grand-Inga project can become the largest hydroengineering complex in the world.
Another project in hydropower generation is expected to be implemented in Ethiopia - the 2,000 MW Mandai hydroelectric power plant. The HPP project will be implemented in one phase, its construction is due to start in 2027 and its commercial commissioning is scheduled for 2031. The HPP’s estimated capacity is 12.2 thousand GWh.
Since 2022, Ergon Solair Africa has been implementing solar photovoltaic power plant project in Kenya with investments of $53.7 million. The power plant will add 40 MW of photovoltaic power to the country’s national power grid.
Another “green” project will be a $4 billion “green” ammonia plant in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. The construction is carried out by Hassan Allam Utilities (Egypt) and Masdar (UAE) and is scheduled to be completed in 2026. Its first stage involves the installation of an electrolyzer with a capacity of 100 MW and a production capacity of 20,000 tons of hydrogen per year. By 2030, the capacity can be increased to 4 GW, which will make it possible to produce 2.3 million tons of “green” ammonia annually.
“There are UN sustainable development goals, and education, the eradication of poverty, the equal access to energy and water resources are of top priority. When talking about Africa, it is necessary, first of all, not to try to collect or not collect bottles, but to provide all people living on this continent with an access to energy. It is the energy that will help solve both food and water problems,” said Dmitry Gusev, Deputy Chairman of the Reliable Partner Association’s Supervisory Board. According to him, the market niches - already occupied in the Russian and European markets - can be filled by businesses in the African market that is not so crowded.
Roads, industrial production and metal mining
Ryan Collyer, CEO of Rosatom’s regional branch in Central and Southern Africa, told TASS that African countries were among the company’s key partners. According to Collyer, a great potential is seen on the continent, not only in the nuclear energy generation, but also in energy storage systems and wind energy generation. They are actively exploring the potential of wind energy in Ethiopia and South Africa. And of course, they continue to be engaged in the nuclear energy sector. “We have signed intergovernmental agreements with various African countries, and we are actively working with them to assist them in reaching their nuclear ambitions,” Collyer said.
According to him, South Africa has a basis and a long history of the nuclear energy development. Collyer is of opinion that the country has successfully and safely operated the Koeberg nuclear power plant (NPP) for over 35 years. Safari 1 research reactor have also been operated for over 55 years. This means that the legal and regulatory framework is in place to progress in the new NPP construction. Now, there is a great potential in other African countries that have done a lot in developing the necessary nuclear infrastructure. These countries are Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Rwanda.
At the same time, along with RES and NPP projects, more traditional ones are also under implementation in the region. Tanzania and Burundi have been building a 282-km-long railway jointly since 2022 to connect the city of Uwinza in Tanzania and Gitega, the capital of Burundi. It is assumed that this railway will go further to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then to Zambia, Rwanda, and Uganda. The investments are estimated at $1.04 billion.
In addition, a project has been implemented in Kenya since 2022 to build six factories producing construction materials. They are expected to produce cement, granite, ceramic tiles and timber. It should be noted that 30% of medium density fiberboard (MDF) and cement will be supplied to the local market, and the remaining 70% will be exported.
And finally, the Australian gold mining company Theta Gold Mines plans to restore old underground gold mines in the Mpumalanga province (South Africa). The first commercial production is expected in the 2nd quarter of 2024. The life of the deposit is estimated at 12.9 years, and 30 tons of gold will be produced from 35 tons of gold ore.
The development of IT solutions for African regions and beyond
In addition to doing business, the African countries offer opportunities for venture capital investments in digital technologies. The continent has a high proportion of the young population, and in some countries, the access to the Internet is good and a number of smartphone and computer users is rather considerable. Against this background, the technopolises - special zones where high-tech projects are set up and developed - facilitate the active development of the countries. These centers provide the premises for young entrepreneurs and start-ups, help attract investments, as well as establish and develop the IT industry on the continent.
The Egypt’s Smart Village is among the most competent business parks in the world. It includes international and local telecommunications and information technology companies, financial institutions and banks. Foreign investors may be interested in the Agency for the Development of the Information Technology Industry that is an accelerator for start-ups and provides them with coaching and guidance, budget-friendly offices, and start-up capital.
The widest spread of the Internet on the continent is in South Africa where the need for developing the global digitalization is growing. Since 2015, the management company has been striving to turn the country’s leading business center TechnoPark Stellenbosch into a sustainable innovation center. Among its residents are Capitec Bank, Compuscan, and Garmin Ltd. company that specializes in the GPS technology, as well as the major Internet service provider and web developer Herotel and the radar systems manufacturer Reutech Radar Systems.
But African technology parks support and develop the information and communication technologies not only in their countries but also in other regions. For example, the international corporations Microsoft, Alcatel, Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, ST Microelectronics, and others are the residents of Tunisian El Ghazala.
However, the digitalization process is still slow on the continent. So, in Central Africa, this is explained by of the lack of affordable Internet, computers and reliable round-the-clock power supply. And Silicon Mountain, a tech cluster in Cameroon, is looking to bridge that gap by training young people to develop affordable digital innovations, as well as looking for partners to show the acquired skills.
Technologies for “green” projects
Technology parks in Africa are developing not only local and international initiatives to improve life conditions but also contribute to the development of “green” technologies, keeping up with the global agenda.
For example, the Moroccan Information Technopark Company has established itself as an incubator and accelerator for small businesses in the information, communication and ‘green’ technologies. The Technopark provides them with funding, access to markets, training and technical support.
Vadim Petrov, Co-chairman and State Secretary of the Russian Environmental Chamber, Chairman of the Public Council under the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, noted that the African market was promising for the Russian tech companies under the current sanctions. “An extremely important thing is a pure humanitarian international environmental mission. In my opinion, the development of unified Russian-African ESG principles for joint projects under present-day conditions would be important so that investment projects are aimed at solving environmental challenges. Then, it will be difficult to pay no regard to the national ESG approaches,” Petrov explained.
He also stressed that if the efforts were aimed at the establishing and developing the Russian-African ecotechnoparks today, these projects would obviously become extremely attractive for ESG investors in the next five to ten years, given the global importance of solving the Africa’s environmental problems.
In December 2021, a master plan for the development and construction of the Kigali Innovation City (KIC) was presented in Rwanda. It is a multifunctional world-class smart innovation center for the development of advanced solutions that can stimulate economic growth in the city, the country and the African continent as a whole. Just as importantly, the project will be “green” as 50% of the city’s area is an open space, including forests. It is expected that the KIC project’s implementation will create additional 50 thousand jobs, attract over $300 million of foreign direct investments, and another $150 million per year will be brought by the export of information and communication technologies.
Also, iHub has been operating in Nairobi since 2010, a co-working space and an innovation platform bringing together entrepreneurs, software developers and investors interested in developing the technologies aimed at solving Africa’s key problems. Here, startups can get financial support, coachers’ advices, and recommendations from industry experts. The iHub’s international partners include Facebook, Google, Oracle, Safaricom, Seacom, and the World Bank.
Concentration of universities and fintech companies
Cape Town is home to the oldest technology business incubator on the African continent, the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi). It was set up to support innovation and easy availability in the financial-services industry, as well as to develop blockchain initiatives. CiTi has gained international recognition as the main catalyst for the fintech boom in the region.
In Pretoria, at the other end of the country, the Innovation Hub business park has been operating since 2001, the Africa’s first internationally accredited technological cluster and a member of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP). It is symbolic that it is located near the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - the leading research organization in SA - and the South Africa’s Ministry of Science and Technology. This innovation center houses, among others, the mobile application laboratory mLab Southern Africa and a business incubator.
And in Kenya, there is a real Silicon Savannah - Konza Technopolis. It became part of the national development program Kenya Vision 2030. Leading telecommunication companies and scientific institutions are located there, including the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
The Yabacon Valley technology park is among several institutions of higher education in Nigeria. And the main pride of the Nigerian CcHub is Andela, a talent accelerator for software specialists with campuses in Lagos, Nairobi and New York, which trains software developers to work at major IT companies around the world.
The Digital Technology Park (Parc des Technologies Numériques, PTN) in Senegal completes our overview of the African technoparks, the project is due to be operational by 2025. The total investment in the project is €70 million. It is assumed that the Digital Technology Park will concentrate the Senegal’s digital economy in the new business center of the country, the city of Diamniado. About 20 companies, including international corporations such as ATOS, Free, and Solution Informatique Durable (SOLID), have already expressed their interest in carrying out some of their activities in the future Park.
Irina Mandrykina, Karina Panina, Victoria Koneva, Kristina Miroshnichenko
While a few years ago, only a small share of the Russian companies were interested in the African continent and the majority focused primarily on the European Union, the potential of the region is now being discussed at the state level.
In the run-up to the Russia-Africa Summit that will be held in St. Petersburg on July 26 to 29, we would like to outline the African region’s most promising projects and technoparks selected together with experts, in which the Russian entrepreneurs can potentially take part.
“Green” energy and low carbon economy
At the moment, a number of large industrial and infrastructure facilities are under construction in Africa, and the countries of Europe, Asia and America take part in their implementation. Most of these projects relate to “green” energy and the development of low-carbon production. Irina Gaida, Deputy Director of the Project Center for Energy Transition at Skoltech, told TASS that one of the most promising areas of international cooperation today for Russian integrators of renewable energy sources (RESs) is, among other things, a pivot to African countries and the investments in joint projects. “Africa has become one of the main markets for the development of RESs due to its huge potential in the solar and wind energy generation. The Russian companies can take an active part in such joint projects, offering their technologies (including in small hydropower generation, electrolyzers, post-lithium storage systems) and their successful experience as integrators of solar and wind energy projects,” Gaida emphasized.
Thus, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a cascade of seven Grand Inga hydroelectric power plants is under construction with the investment of about $14 billion. Each hydroelectric power plant is designed to generate from 4 GW to 8 GW, reaching a total of 40 GW. It is assumed that the Grand-Inga project can become the largest hydroengineering complex in the world.
Another project in hydropower generation is expected to be implemented in Ethiopia - the 2,000 MW Mandai hydroelectric power plant. The HPP project will be implemented in one phase, its construction is due to start in 2027 and its commercial commissioning is scheduled for 2031. The HPP’s estimated capacity is 12.2 thousand GWh.
Since 2022, Ergon Solair Africa has been implementing solar photovoltaic power plant project in Kenya with investments of $53.7 million. The power plant will add 40 MW of photovoltaic power to the country’s national power grid.
Another “green” project will be a $4 billion “green” ammonia plant in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. The construction is carried out by Hassan Allam Utilities (Egypt) and Masdar (UAE) and is scheduled to be completed in 2026. Its first stage involves the installation of an electrolyzer with a capacity of 100 MW and a production capacity of 20,000 tons of hydrogen per year. By 2030, the capacity can be increased to 4 GW, which will make it possible to produce 2.3 million tons of “green” ammonia annually.
“There are UN sustainable development goals, and education, the eradication of poverty, the equal access to energy and water resources are of top priority. When talking about Africa, it is necessary, first of all, not to try to collect or not collect bottles, but to provide all people living on this continent with an access to energy. It is the energy that will help solve both food and water problems,” said Dmitry Gusev, Deputy Chairman of the Reliable Partner Association’s Supervisory Board. According to him, the market niches - already occupied in the Russian and European markets - can be filled by businesses in the African market that is not so crowded.
Roads, industrial production and metal mining
Ryan Collyer, CEO of Rosatom’s regional branch in Central and Southern Africa, told TASS that African countries were among the company’s key partners. According to Collyer, a great potential is seen on the continent, not only in the nuclear energy generation, but also in energy storage systems and wind energy generation. They are actively exploring the potential of wind energy in Ethiopia and South Africa. And of course, they continue to be engaged in the nuclear energy sector. “We have signed intergovernmental agreements with various African countries, and we are actively working with them to assist them in reaching their nuclear ambitions,” Collyer said.
According to him, South Africa has a basis and a long history of the nuclear energy development. Collyer is of opinion that the country has successfully and safely operated the Koeberg nuclear power plant (NPP) for over 35 years. Safari 1 research reactor have also been operated for over 55 years. This means that the legal and regulatory framework is in place to progress in the new NPP construction. Now, there is a great potential in other African countries that have done a lot in developing the necessary nuclear infrastructure. These countries are Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Rwanda.
At the same time, along with RES and NPP projects, more traditional ones are also under implementation in the region. Tanzania and Burundi have been building a 282-km-long railway jointly since 2022 to connect the city of Uwinza in Tanzania and Gitega, the capital of Burundi. It is assumed that this railway will go further to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and then to Zambia, Rwanda, and Uganda. The investments are estimated at $1.04 billion.
In addition, a project has been implemented in Kenya since 2022 to build six factories producing construction materials. They are expected to produce cement, granite, ceramic tiles and timber. It should be noted that 30% of medium density fiberboard (MDF) and cement will be supplied to the local market, and the remaining 70% will be exported.
And finally, the Australian gold mining company Theta Gold Mines plans to restore old underground gold mines in the Mpumalanga province (South Africa). The first commercial production is expected in the 2nd quarter of 2024. The life of the deposit is estimated at 12.9 years, and 30 tons of gold will be produced from 35 tons of gold ore.
The development of IT solutions for African regions and beyond
In addition to doing business, the African countries offer opportunities for venture capital investments in digital technologies. The continent has a high proportion of the young population, and in some countries, the access to the Internet is good and a number of smartphone and computer users is rather considerable. Against this background, the technopolises - special zones where high-tech projects are set up and developed - facilitate the active development of the countries. These centers provide the premises for young entrepreneurs and start-ups, help attract investments, as well as establish and develop the IT industry on the continent.
The Egypt’s Smart Village is among the most competent business parks in the world. It includes international and local telecommunications and information technology companies, financial institutions and banks. Foreign investors may be interested in the Agency for the Development of the Information Technology Industry that is an accelerator for start-ups and provides them with coaching and guidance, budget-friendly offices, and start-up capital.
The widest spread of the Internet on the continent is in South Africa where the need for developing the global digitalization is growing. Since 2015, the management company has been striving to turn the country’s leading business center TechnoPark Stellenbosch into a sustainable innovation center. Among its residents are Capitec Bank, Compuscan, and Garmin Ltd. company that specializes in the GPS technology, as well as the major Internet service provider and web developer Herotel and the radar systems manufacturer Reutech Radar Systems.
But African technology parks support and develop the information and communication technologies not only in their countries but also in other regions. For example, the international corporations Microsoft, Alcatel, Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, ST Microelectronics, and others are the residents of Tunisian El Ghazala.
However, the digitalization process is still slow on the continent. So, in Central Africa, this is explained by of the lack of affordable Internet, computers and reliable round-the-clock power supply. And Silicon Mountain, a tech cluster in Cameroon, is looking to bridge that gap by training young people to develop affordable digital innovations, as well as looking for partners to show the acquired skills.
Technologies for “green” projects
Technology parks in Africa are developing not only local and international initiatives to improve life conditions but also contribute to the development of “green” technologies, keeping up with the global agenda.
For example, the Moroccan Information Technopark Company has established itself as an incubator and accelerator for small businesses in the information, communication and ‘green’ technologies. The Technopark provides them with funding, access to markets, training and technical support.
Vadim Petrov, Co-chairman and State Secretary of the Russian Environmental Chamber, Chairman of the Public Council under the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, noted that the African market was promising for the Russian tech companies under the current sanctions. “An extremely important thing is a pure humanitarian international environmental mission. In my opinion, the development of unified Russian-African ESG principles for joint projects under present-day conditions would be important so that investment projects are aimed at solving environmental challenges. Then, it will be difficult to pay no regard to the national ESG approaches,” Petrov explained.
He also stressed that if the efforts were aimed at the establishing and developing the Russian-African ecotechnoparks today, these projects would obviously become extremely attractive for ESG investors in the next five to ten years, given the global importance of solving the Africa’s environmental problems.
In December 2021, a master plan for the development and construction of the Kigali Innovation City (KIC) was presented in Rwanda. It is a multifunctional world-class smart innovation center for the development of advanced solutions that can stimulate economic growth in the city, the country and the African continent as a whole. Just as importantly, the project will be “green” as 50% of the city’s area is an open space, including forests. It is expected that the KIC project’s implementation will create additional 50 thousand jobs, attract over $300 million of foreign direct investments, and another $150 million per year will be brought by the export of information and communication technologies.
Also, iHub has been operating in Nairobi since 2010, a co-working space and an innovation platform bringing together entrepreneurs, software developers and investors interested in developing the technologies aimed at solving Africa’s key problems. Here, startups can get financial support, coachers’ advices, and recommendations from industry experts. The iHub’s international partners include Facebook, Google, Oracle, Safaricom, Seacom, and the World Bank.
Concentration of universities and fintech companies
Cape Town is home to the oldest technology business incubator on the African continent, the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi). It was set up to support innovation and easy availability in the financial-services industry, as well as to develop blockchain initiatives. CiTi has gained international recognition as the main catalyst for the fintech boom in the region.
In Pretoria, at the other end of the country, the Innovation Hub business park has been operating since 2001, the Africa’s first internationally accredited technological cluster and a member of the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP). It is symbolic that it is located near the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - the leading research organization in SA - and the South Africa’s Ministry of Science and Technology. This innovation center houses, among others, the mobile application laboratory mLab Southern Africa and a business incubator.
And in Kenya, there is a real Silicon Savannah - Konza Technopolis. It became part of the national development program Kenya Vision 2030. Leading telecommunication companies and scientific institutions are located there, including the Kenya Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
The Yabacon Valley technology park is among several institutions of higher education in Nigeria. And the main pride of the Nigerian CcHub is Andela, a talent accelerator for software specialists with campuses in Lagos, Nairobi and New York, which trains software developers to work at major IT companies around the world.
The Digital Technology Park (Parc des Technologies Numériques, PTN) in Senegal completes our overview of the African technoparks, the project is due to be operational by 2025. The total investment in the project is €70 million. It is assumed that the Digital Technology Park will concentrate the Senegal’s digital economy in the new business center of the country, the city of Diamniado. About 20 companies, including international corporations such as ATOS, Free, and Solution Informatique Durable (SOLID), have already expressed their interest in carrying out some of their activities in the future Park.
Irina Mandrykina, Karina Panina, Victoria Koneva, Kristina Miroshnichenko
