Tata Group now seeks to deepen presence in Africa to leverage on the booming infrastructure construction in the continent.
According to the Business Development and Public Affairs head for the company, Madhu Kannan, the group had been in the African continent for almost 40 years and it was time for them to scale up.
“Tata Group now seeks to deepen presence in Africa to leverage on the booming automotive sector, trade and infrastructure,” he said.
Kannan noted that the company would leverage its presence in Africa in a structured way with this idea being prioritized a year ago.
Kannan indicated that the company would primarily focus on South Africa, East Africa: Kenya and Ethiopia and West Africa: Nigeria and Ghana to grow its business. Priority was key for the company in order to kick start the process of scaling up. Different Tata operating companies will focus on different countries.
Kannan further indicated that the sectors that the company had identified to focus on in Africa are the automotive sector, trade and infrastructure. The company would also focus on consumer space though not as much as the other sectors.
Tata is currently working with Eskom South Africa to provide testing, inspection and certification services for the Medupi and Kusile power projects.
The Projects MD for Tata, Vinayak Deshpande indicated that they were currently analyzing methods to use in the renovation of old power stations in the country for benefit of the locals. They have done an initial study on the same to see the requirements.
With regard to this, Tata Projects, Tata Power and TCE would provide renovation services to clients of old power stations. These would be separate from those which had already been supplied.
