GE, Mara Group to address infrastructural challenges in Africa

General Electric has partnered with Mara Group and Atlas Merchant Capital in an initiative dedicated to in­vesting in the highly under­developed African infrastruc­ture sector.
The companies, through a statement, said the joint ven­ture will seek to invest in in­frastructure equity projects in selected countries throughout Africa.
The region has a plethora of hurdles that need urgent address and they range from electrification, water storage, transportation and port ca­pacity.

“More than 50 per cent of our African nations includ­ing Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and the DRC, don’t have access to electricity and an infrastructure investment of US$360bn in power pro­duction, power transmission, water storage, modern rail­ways, port capacity and mod­ern highways will be required until 2040,” said the statement.
“Furthermore, Africa needs to spend $90 billion a year for the next decade in order to up­grade and maintain its existing infrastructure alone.”
Africa’s population is set to rise to 1.5 billion by 2025 and the surge will bring with it a strain to the current infra­structure.
l CEO, GE, Jeffrey Immelt