By Shruti Menon Seeboo
As the Fifth India-Africa Entrepreneurship and Investment Summit commences today in Nairobi, spotlighting avenues for robust bilateral growth, we turn our attention to one of Africa’s most significant industrial players. DP Mohanty, Regional Managing Director – Eastern Africa at Safal Group, leads a company with a commanding presence across the continent’s building solutions sector, boasting over 60 years of operation and a turnover exceeding USD 600 million.
With manufacturing units spanning Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa, and a reach across nine countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, Safal Group is a key driver of steel manufacturing, building solutions, and pre-engineered structures. Mr. Mohanty provides a compelling perspective on Africa’s immense potential for Indian businesses, particularly in flat steel and value-added steel products, alongside navigating challenges like supply chain disruptions and skills gaps. His insights offer a tangible glimpse into the vast opportunities for collaboration and investment, particularly as Safal Group actively seeks technology and business partners from India at this crucial Summit. Excerpts:
- Safal Group has a significant presence and diverse interests. What specific sectors or regions within Africa is Safal Group currently focusing on for expansion or investment, and what are you hoping to achieve through your participation in this India Africa Summit?
The Safal Group is one of the largest building solutions providers in Africa and the largest metal roofings company in the continent. The group is more than 60 years old in the continent and has manufacturing units in Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa and presence across 9 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. The group employs close to 3,500 people directly and has a turnover in excess of USD 600 Mn.
The specific sectors that the Group is focusing is on Steel Manufacturing, Building Solutions, Pre Engineered Buildings, Polycarbonate, Cold Rooms and everything to do with Steel Buildings. We recently completed a USD 25 Mn investment in Tanzania and working on a USD 60 Mn investment in Uganda and further investment in PEB and Solutions business.
From the India Africa Summit our main objective is to network, listen to some perspective on Africa by key experienced people in the continent, look at companies interested in collaborating on technology, business etc.
- From Safal Group’s perspective, what are the most attractive aspects of the African market for Indian businesses, and conversely, what are the primary challenges that need to be navigated for successful ventures on the continent?
From our Group perspective we see immense potential in setting up manufacturing facilities in the Steel Industry, through backward integration into mining of Iron Ore etc. The total Flat Steel Market is growing in the range of 6 % to 7% per annum in East Africa and we need at least 3 factories with capacity of 150,000 MT per annum each in the next 6 to 7 years for Flat Steel only. There is huge potential in other category of steel manufacturing like sections, rebars as well as the markets are growing.
We also see immense potential in Pre-Engineered Building Manufacturing, Polycarbonate, Sandwich Panels, Cold Rooms and with the mining sectors opening up in many countries like Tanzania, DRC etc, we see immense potential to manufacture steel needed for the mining sector.
Key Challenges that need to be navigated are supply chain disruptions, energy prices, skills gaps, ease and cost of doing business, competition from imports and successful integration of common markets to give seamless access to larger markets.
- Given the Summit’s emphasis on entrepreneurship and collaboration, how does Safal Group approach potential partnerships or joint ventures with African enterprises, and what qualities do you look for in such collaborations?
We have strong collaborations with some leading companies in the world like Nippon Steel, Marubeni for technology and raw material sourcing. We are looking at potential partners in the downstream space of offering solutions like PEB, Services, Cold Rooms etc. We look for long terms collaborations, based on trust and compliance to the laws of the land.
- Looking ahead, how do you see the broader India-Africa economic relationship evolving over the next 5-10 years, and what role do you believe diversified business groups like Safal will play in shaping this trajectory?
Africa will grow due to low base. We should see much more value addition happening in the continent, investment in infrastructure, agro processing, technology etc. With the common AfCFTA coming into force we will see a large common market. This gives Indian companies opportunity to invest in Africa and therefore we see large private sector led investment from India. For us at Safal Group, we wish to partner with companies to manufacture and do more value addition in the continent. With our experience with more than 60 years and in diverse countries in Africa we understand the dynamics well, have seen the business cycle and can help Indian companies collaborate and mitigate some of the risks that we have already seen.
