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HIMOINSA strengthens trade ties with Africa at Africa Energy Forum
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| 27 Jun 2013 |
Keith Webb, HIMOINSA's Middle East Director, and Guillermo Elum,
Sales & Marketing Director.
Ministers, investors and power generation companies such as HIMOINSA discussed how to satisfy the increasing demand for energy in the African continent.
The Africa Energy Forum (AEF), now in its 15th year, is the world’s pre-eminent and largest conference on power in Africa. Between 18 and 20 June, more than 26 African nations were represented in Barcelona by ministers and government officials from the various power departments of each country.
Companies from the power sector such as HIMOINSA attended the event in order to strengthen trade ties with some African nations. HIMOINSA’s director of Sales & Marketing, Guillermo Elum, and the company’s Middle East director, Keith Webb, met with several members from the continent’s governments, international banks and important European and American financiers. "One of the points we raised at this forum was to propose to solar generation companies the possibility of creating a dual project to design more efficient combined cycle plants in the African continent", explained Guillermo Elum upon his return from the conference.
This power multinational, which has a subsidiary in Angola, has been collaborating on projects in Africa since the 1990s. One of the most recent ones is the start up of a 25 MW facility in Luanda, commissioned by the country’s Ministry of Energy and Water, MINEA, with whom HIMOINSA began working some time ago.
AEF’s Development director, Álex Moulds, remarked that only 3% of the companies present at the event were Spanish and that HIMOINSA was the only one with its own stand. "I am well aware of HIMIONSA’s reputation on the international stage and I trust we shall have a long-lasting relationship as AEF can be an excellent platform via which to expand the company’s footprint in Africa", stated Moulds, who also noted that this year’s event boasted the largest number of delegates ever.
Various ministers, such as Salvador Namburete, Mozambique’s Minister for Energy, were very satisfied with the event. ”I always enjoy attending this congress since by participating we have been able to push forward many new projects", stated Namburete. Other ministers attending included Sierra Leone’s Minister for Energy and Water, Oluniyi Robbin-Coker, and Libya’s Minister of Electricity and Renewable Energies, Ali Migirig.
In total over 900 delegates attended this year’s Africa Energy Forum along with 80 international companies with their own stands. "Of those delegates attending, 49% were European, 9% were from the US, 34% were African and 3% were from the Middle East", added Moulds who encouraged all participants to attend next year’s 16th Africa Energy Forum in Istanbul between 18 and 20 June.
Africa’s combined economies are expected to grow 7% over the next 20 years. However, the growth rates in many African countries are untenable given the lack of significant funding for power projects. These data therefore represent opportunities and challenges for all those companies entering the energy market in Africa. HIMOINSA is therefore constantly shoring up its presence there, powering major projects in nearly all the continent. Countries such as Egypt, Libya, Mozambique, Sudan, Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, Uganda, Cameroon and Niger all use HIMOINSA generating sets in some of their facilities.
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