Africa is home to the world’s first 3D-printed school, built in Malawi’s Salima district and opened in 2021. The walls were printed in 18 hours, compared to several days with conventional building materials.

The construction was carried out by 14Trees, a joint venture of Switzerland’s Holcim and the UK’s development finance institution British International Investment, through a printing process said to significantly reduce the time, cost and materials used for building, while reducing the environmental footprint by more than 50% compared to conventional methods.

In Malawi, UNICEF estimates a shortage of 36,000 classrooms, which would take 70 years to build using conventional methods. According to 14Trees, this infrastructure gap could be bridged in just 10 years with 3D printing. This showcases the incredible potential the technology holds for Africa as a whole, with the continent grappling with a rapid growth in population and urbanisation.  

The panellists in ConstructAfrica’s latest webinar, titled ‘Leveraging Technology to Overcome Challenges in the African Construction Industry’, are equally enthusiastic about the potential of digitalisation for the continent’s dynamic construction and infrastructure market.

The event was hosted by Professor Dr Khumbulani Mpofu, vice-chancellor at Zimbabwe’s Solusi University, and the panellists included:

• Mark Worrall, CEO of Estates and Infrastructure Exchange (EIX)
• Tunde Ogunshakin, director of digital transformation at AEO Group
• Eng Refilwe Buthelezi, president of the Federation of African Engineering Organisations (FAEO)
• James Afolalu, digital twins and infrastructure systems expert
• Eng Sophoniass Deneke, president of the Ethiopian Construction Technology and Management Professionals Association (ECoTMPA)

3D Printing

Eng Deneke spoke about how 3D concrete printing is being employed to tackle Ethiopia’s housing deficit, estimated at more than 1 million units. The state-owned Federal Housing Corporation (FHC) in April signed an agreement with Austrian construction technology provider Baumit Group for the implementation of the technology in the sector. The technology is said to utilise 98% locally sourced materials and facilitate the completion of large-scale housing projects and construction works within months. It is also said to be capable of constructing villa-type residential buildings in less than a day.

Deneke said the printer technology being used is the lost formwork system.

“Instead of formworks, plywood, metal sheets and [such], we do a printing of pallets of formworks using concrete; we can do all the vertical and horizontal parts and also incorporate the conventional way of pouring concrete, which can be done onsite or in a pre-cast system. And there is also a mobile unit; a containerised format …. We have tried to work with the 3D printing manufacturer to be locally adaptable. That means we use our own local materials – sand, limestone and cement – so that [there is no need for] importing materials.”

According to Eng Deneke, the technology offers several advantages, with up to 480 square metres a day being produced using a four-printer workshop. Ground-plus-nine-storey buildings have been completed in 30 days, which, compared to the most advanced construction methods currently used in Ethiopia, reduces building time by 50% and concrete and rebar consumption by 40%, while increasing labor productivity by 40%.

There is often a concern that concrete printing will lead to job losses, said the engineer, but this is not the case here because the system used is hybrid – both conventional construction methods and the 3D printer. “Let's say if we want the production of vertical elements only by the 3D printer, the horizontal elements will still be done the conventional way,” he said.

In addition, from an environmental and social perspective, the 3D printing system reduces waste by 50% and timber usage by 70% compared to previous methods. As a mobile workshop, it also minimises logistics requirements. 

Digital Twins

Meanwhile, Afolalu dove deeper into the various forms of technology that could facilitate project delivery in Africa, focusing on digital twins, building information modelling (BIM) and infrastructure modelling. These tools can address challenges such as project delays, cost overruns, supply chain issues and the mismatch between large populations and skilled labour availability, the expert said. 

If applied correctly, digitalisation can save upwards of 20% in cost overruns on major projects, Afolalu noted, adding that digital tools would also enable African professionals to collaborate with experts across the continent and the world, not just in theory but directly on engineering design and maintenance. The tools could also significantly reduce waste and facilitate predictive maintenance.

Afolalu revealed he is currently working at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, said to be one of the busiest airports in the world and which has invested billions to digitise all its assets not just in 2D or 3D but in BIM, including 4D and 5D. This allows us to plan years ahead, optimise maintenance contracts and evaluate asset value comprehensively, the expert said.

“Right now, we are at a stage in which we're actually looking at evaluating the value of the entire airport and the main contractors who are involved in maintenance of the airport – how we can actually optimise the different maintenance contracts that we have with them. So, it's more than just construction; [it’s also] the maintenance of our assets. This could have a huge impact on all the airports and other infrastructures that we have in Africa.”

People need to become familiar with the fact that you do not need to take a project team physically to the project site, said Afolalu; you can have a meeting about a road simply by sitting the experts and users together and walking down the road by scrolling through the digital version of the road using BIM. “Once we're able to do that, we [can] get to the next stage of actually … integrating sensors and … other realtime technologies [that] will provide data.”

The expert noted that there are currently many projects with Internet of Things [IoT] capabilities, where the sensors are sending information, but are not being used effectively because the basic BIM infrastructure is missing. In the future, Afolalu opined, the industry could move on to the stage of cloud collaboration and take project implementation and maintenance to a higher level.
The expert added that training and education were key to enabling the shift in mindset towards digitalisation, along with collaboration between the public and private sectors. 

“It doesn't matter what village or town you live in, I can tell you there will be at least one important infrastructure that does not yet have a digital map; with an investment of a couple of days and free technology, we can get a basic digital twin of this village or this infrastructure in the village and we can start doing simple things. So, it's an entrepreneurial opportunity, an intellectual opportunity and a business opportunity …. My call to action is: let's … embrace innovation. Let's collaborate across borders.” 

Critical Enablers

Eng Buthelezi opined that technology is starting to support construction across Africa, from planning through to project delivery, but that corruption and crime are limiting progress. She also said the lack of training systems and sufficient capacity-building systems was keeping young entrepreneurs from producing bankable plans. 

FAEO has recognised this gap and established the FAEO Academy, an online learning management system (LMS) designed for all African engineering professionals to improve their skills, obtain continuing professional development (CPD) and learn about financing and business planning.

On infrastructure data and analytics reform, Eng Buthelezi said: “We cannot … in my view improve the construction sector if we do not also appreciate efficiency and quality and technology is the catalyst to ensuring we achieve that. We need to start assisting people on what these buzz words [mean]; these are big words to some people. 

“We need to imagine a young engineer sitting in a rural community being placed in a municipality in a country that does not have the resources they would require. And yet this young professional is eager to work. And this young professional has a certificate that says you are now a qualified technologist, engineer or technician. Where do they go? How do they begin? So … having had the opportunity to lead engineering institutions and to lead the regulator, I think it is important to sum up all of this because when we leave here, I do think there are lowest hanging fruits within which we can collaborate and see how we can assist in achieving these.” 

The engineer also spoke about the importance of appreciating the value of technical and vocational education. We must “improve reforms that will enable [TVET to] not only be seen as the space where only those that don't qualify for engineering go to. No, ladies and gentlemen, it is actually the space where we cultivate the skill at an early stage where when they leave and they graduate, they don't just leave with a certificate, but they also leave with a skill. 

“I do not think people appreciate the skill that TVET education provides to these young professionals. Therefore, for me, it's it's an area where we must bring together the public and private [sectors] and and improve and upskill the space of TVET so that … we can cultivate [learners] at a very young age, from grade eight.”

Eng Buthelezi opined that Africa has the skills and capability, but that corruption was creating the impression that the continent lacks competence. Some countries outside Africa also face similar challenges, but they affect us more because we are at a stage of significant opportunity and potential growth, she said.

“One of the things the [African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)] is [targeting] now is how can we increase mobility of professionals and how can we [then] assist with dispute resolution; how do we then involve engineers in this practice? At FAEO, we started a committee called dispute resolution and one of the things we are encouraging is that all national members of FAEO start involving engineers in this mechanism; start training engineers in this mechanism. No offense to the legal practitioners but I do think if we as the professionals who know the subject matter are involved, we will find that some of these conflicts can be resolved a lot quicker.”

Finally, strategic collaboration and policy alignment are essential, Eng Buthelezi said. “I believe there is a lot of silo mentality out there. There are a lot of good initiatives that are happening but as we work together and start having a multi-stakeholder collaboration, we have a huge chance of achieving a lot more.

“When we then start looking at continental frameworks, when we then start building regional knowledge hubs and cross-industry alliances, where we then start talking to say how are we as IoT, as AI, as OT professionals going to [create] an app or a marketplace for mentors and we have a platform for mentors – you reach any mentor anywhere on the continent just through an app; I think the opportunity is there for us to start collaborating in that way.

“When we synergise, when we are able to collectively go to our partners of a continental space such as [BRICS and G20], we [can] collectively say as an African continent that we would like you to invite you Mr China to come and manufacture in our continent. But you're not just delivering finished goods because we are not just consumers. We want to also manufacture what we consume as a continent. In strength of collaboration, we then have a bigger voice when we meet these players and they are able to take us seriously.”

Financing Digitalisation

On the financing aspect of digitisation, Ogunshakin spoke about how blockchain could provide a technological structure that creates trust without the need for traditional intermediaries, and specifically how the blockchain function of tokenisation, which fractionalises ownership of an asset, similar to shares in companies listed on public exchanges, could promote transparency, efficiency and immutability in project contracts.

“I think the benefit of using tokenisation specifically comes two-fold in the way that we can look at enhancing existing procedures that investors use to invest in infrastructure as an asset class but also offer the asset class to a new cohort of individuals that hadn't previously been able to access this particular marketplace. So, those are two facets of blockchain that I'm focused on specifically but it does go a lot more deeper than that in the sense that it's a trust mechanism. 

"When you look at blockchain as an immutable ledger that can't be changed and as a single source of truth; there are a lot of benefits you know when it comes to construction milestones. So, being able to utilise smart contracts [and] facilitate payments once certain milestones have been achieved or simply just being able to induce contracts themselves in a more efficient manner to reduce the need for arbitration and litigation among different entities when it comes to focusing on this problem.

“Smart contracts in short are basically a form of code that executes certain lines of action based on predetermined criteria. So, you can imagine how you can structure that in the frame of a contract for an infrastructure project or any project for that matter and you know how much time and effort can be saved when it comes to the build, the operation or even in the design phase of infrastructure development.”

Ogunshakin mentioned that C Drive, a platform he founded and which is based in the Web 3 realm (decentralised internet structured around an open blockchain network) and aimed at utilising blockchain technology to enhance infrastructure investment, is “working on a platform that will help facilitate what it is that I've been talking about”.

“It will be very much everything up to tokenising the asset itself all the way down to managing the asset in terms of doing ESG reporting, contract management, as well as transacting [with] a white list of investors from different regions globally and then also offering a secondary market  opportunity in that regard.

“I think for Africa this is a really good opportunity for us to leapfrog legacy systems. I appreciate there's a lot of work to be done in this space as it's quite a niche industry as it stands. It's quite difficult to penetrate this market but I think because Africa is at such an intersection point, if we begin to adopt these mechanisms early on, we can skip quite a lot of the hurdles that have typically been experienced in the West.” 

Worrall told the audience how EIX has been around for eight years and is funding projects around the world as debt by combining project funding with insurance. This allows scalable debt financing without the need to enlist the World Bank and similar institutions, he said.

“We can make the creditworthiness of a project higher than it would be regardless of the state of the country, which is obviously very relevant to the African continent because you can actually raise it to investment grade for … pension funds and insurance companies, etc, to be able to invest in those projects,” he said.

“We have two unique [selling points] – one is that we can do it from a very early stage. I think, for Africa, [the fact that] we are able to fund projects from a very early stage with debt to as much as 70-80% insurance coverage for capital and interest for projects to be able to get off the ground. Then that financial exposure is taken out by the full financing package.

“If, let's say, we had a 100 million that was required for a project, what we would be able to do is we would be able to cover 80-90% of that financing with the 10% simply being the land and the permissions attached to it. So those projects would then be able to be financed over a 20-30 year period.

“So, there's two parameters that we provide – one is a very high loan-to-value and a very long tenor. And before that, what we're able to do is also finance at a lesser insured level, but nonetheless for a good return for investors – a capability of being able to get those projects to the starting line of that full financing position.

“So, what that means is that fundamentally you've got, let's say, the paper that you want to run for the full financing of the development of the site; let's say waste to energy or solar. We can finance the two years prior to being ready to finance and then the 30 years afterwards, including the construction period. You've got 32 years of finance [and] what is really good, whether it be for a state or a company, is that your balance sheet is not diluted along the way. So, we're offering a debt solution end to end for that period of time.

“So, in the example I've just given on that 100 million for 32 years and you may have 10% of that; it might cost you 10 million to get the project ready. So, we finance all of that and then we roll up the interest; repay the interest at the beginning and then we finance for the following 30 years, the construction period, which rolls up the interest and then we amortise the interest after you’re stable as an up and running company over the 28 years. And we list that as a bond in London on a regulated structure. It's fully insured. So the lenders that come in are insured through using a mixture of the natural insurance that you have but also parametric insurance. So, you're able to build a structure that fundamentally means the projects in hand are of investment grade as long as we can understand the risks of the place, country and situation.

“So, [how it works is], we sign an NDA so everyone feels protected, then you fill out a project information request [and] we give you four answers back from that, which is insurance; someone who's interested in representing your project in London; the exchange itself; and the fact that we think in principle we can fund it to the levels I've mentioned – 80-90% loan-to-value as debt and then you get back the insurance. When you fill out that form, we will tell you within about a week to 10 days whether we can do it. It's quite quick and then, once the whole project is presented to us, we will look to fund that in a 12-16 week period. So, it's quick but you have to be ready for the project to be funded.”

At the webinar’s conclusion, Eng Buthelezi pointed out how the recent completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a huge milestone for Africa and demonstrates what is possible when leadership is committed and recognises engineering talent. But discipline is also essential, she said, noting that technology requires consistency and the leadership must understand this.

The engineer also said that governments must appreciate the young professionals entering the field. “We may think they are young and they are going to destabilise the system, but they are the people who know and appreciate this technology better than us. So, [we need to] start [having] a lot more inclusive leadership in the spaces we have.”

You can watch the full webinar by clicking on the YouTube link below:

Top photo: Technology in construction (© AminaDesign | Dreamstime.com)