Mota-Engil, the Portuguese construction giant receives warm accolades at the recently concluded RailAfta conference held in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
The company which is handling the Kano-Maradi SGR railway project between Nigeria and Niger republics, was the focus of attention as the subject of the conference was “Powering African Continental Free Trade Area with Sustainable Railway Development.
Many participants were curious to learn about the Kano-Maradi project especially as it holds the prospect of linkage with the Trans-Sahel railway project and the Greater Maghreb rail project designed to link the North African nations of Morroco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya.
The presence of Mota Engil as a sponsor of the event serves to educate Nigerians and Africans more about the Kano-Maradi project and the deep presence of the Portugese firm across Africa.
According to a participant, Yinka Busari, the RailAfta is a great event for it allows genuine interactions among rail stakeholders , adding “I was particularly impressed with the line up of sponsors and participants such as Mota Engil, Team Engineering, CRCC, CLCC and many others.
” I picked interest in Mota Engil because of the Kano-Maradi project. Regional rail connectivity is a precondition for the success of AfCFTA. As Mota is anchoring the project, I count this as a major advance into Africa by the European firm” , Yinka noted.
At the same time, it sheds light on Mota-Engil as a truly giant construction firm across Africa.
The company indeed recognised
Africa as a natural market for the Mota-Engil Group due to its long-standing and acknowledged experience which began in Angola in 1946.
“With an unrivalled position in Africa thanks to an ongoing investment in its capacity for the mobilisation of resources for the completion of large scale projects, Mota-Engil Africa has a strategic perspective in the long term and a broad horizon of action while it endeavours to establish ever closer partnerships in infrastructure projects in areas as varied as Transport and Logistics, Energy, Oil & Gas, Mining and the Environment.
“By expanding into new markets of the SADC (Southern African Development Community) space, Mota-Engil Africa holds the technical and financial capacity to develop projects tailored to its customers’ needs, bringing the African continent into line with its potentialities.
“To this end, and seeking to contribute to raising environmental quality standards across the African continent, Mota-Engil has strengthened its investment in waste management, and currently runs important operations in Angola (Vista Waste), Mozambique (Ecolife) and Côte d’Ivoire (Eco Eburnie, Kano-Maradi and Clean Eburnie)”, the company noted.
