Siemens on brink of power roll-out

GERMAN conglomerate Siemens said yesterday it would use the upcoming World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa to announce significant infrastructure initiatives that it plans to roll out across Africa.

The multinational would not be drawn on the details of the initiatives, but said they would be made public during the WEF meeting in Durban next week.

The president and chief executive of Siemens, Joe Kaeser, said the demand for electrification and infrastructure in Africa was huge and companies needed to develop financing models to fund initiatives designed to meet this demand.

“Europeans must finally understand that Africa needs partners, not donors and a lot of good advice. And that requires a new way of thinking and new policies. Africa needs African solutions that create value in Africa for Africa,” Kaeser said.

Siemens said it had entered into a manufacturing agreement with Electro Inductive Industries (Eii) as it sought to bring new technology to the country’s transformer-manufacturing industry.

Training

The company’s southern and east Africa head of transformers and high-voltage products, Ronnie Naidoo, said Siemens would introduce its new technology by training Eii staff.

“Siemens experts will begin training Eii staff on the new technology, equipment and quality, thereby equipping them with a new set of internationally recognised assembly skills and expertise,” Naidoo said.

Eii is a Cape Town-based Level 2 broad-based black economic empowerment company that specialises in manufacturing transformers. The manufacturing facility was being developed and upgraded to cater for a new line of Siemens transformers as part of its growth and job-creation strategy. Siemens said its partnership with Eii was a move to support the government’s multi-billion-rand black industrialist programme that focuses on the localisation of electrical products such as transformers.

Naidoo said the partnership would benefit all parties concerned. “Siemens is in Africa for Africa. This new partnership is of immense importance in helping South Africa to achieve its market growth, with benefits to society as a whole, such as an increase in job creation. It also helps Siemens to expand its local portfolio,” Naidoo said.