
It pays to be persistent
Africa offers more opportunities than risks, something
MAN Energy Solutions
has long been aware of.
Patience is the most important prerequisite if you want
to do business successfully in Africa.” So says Ghassan
Saab, Head of Sales Africa in SBU-P. He coordinates business activities on the
African continent and has work aplenty just now. Thirty projects, many of them
power plants, are currently in the pipeline or already in progress. As well as
public and private energy producers, MAN Energy Solutions’ customers
include mining firms, utilities, fertilizer manufacturers, and oil and gas
companies. “In Africa, it’s not always possible
to predict how a project will develop. The timetable is frequently delayed as a
result of contracts having to be renegotiated, sometimes for no apparent
reason. It nevertheless pays to be persistent, as Africa is an emergent market
with great potential and a wealth of opportunities,” says Ghassan
Saab, summing up his impressions. For the rich continents in the North, Africa
was for a long time just a group of countries in search of an identity. That
perception has now changed. Today, many African states are attractive to
investors because they both possess huge mineral resources and have a lot of
catching-up to do when it comes to technological infrastructure. Luckily, MAN
Energy Solutions is already very well placed in this market. “We’ve been a key player
in Africa for decades, but we’re not yet where we want to be,” says Ghassan
Saab, giving his assessment. “We’ve already
defined our strategy and are right in the middle of implementing it. The plan
is to further consolidate our position in the near future and open up new areas
of business.”
