Africa is the future, project managers told

is being represented at the three-day conference by Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe chief executive Mr Peter Banda and executive board member Miss Thandekile  Chibanda.
Several papers were delivered ranging from management of innovative projects to the practice of portfolio and project management.
Delivering the first conference paper yesterday, Cape Town-based independent political analyst Mr Daniel Silke made startling revelations about  how  the African continent will influence the direction of the global economy.
Ten years ago the African continent was branded a hopeless continent by the Economist magazine but by 2050 it is predicted that 25 percent of the world population will live in Africa signalling an impending migration of populations from the West, East and EU to Africa in search for scarce resources such as minerals and land that are still untapped in Africa, said Mr Silke.
Up to 50 percent of the African population is people under the age of 24 while 500 million Africans are in the middle class, representing a giant market for the world’s technology-based products ranging from                         iPhones to trendy automobiles.  Rural to urban migration remained a challenge not only in African but in rest of the world with over five million people estimated to be migrating to cities every month globally putting a strain to project plans for local authorities in delivery of basic services such as water and energy.
Angola and Nigeria were cited as Africa predicted leaders in rate of economic growth on the African continent between 2011 and 2015 at 11,1 percent and 6,8 percent respectively, giving a fair amount of competition  to economies outside Africa such as China at 9,5 percent and India at 8,2 percent in the same forecast period. Whether we like it or not change to the global economy influenced by Africa is coming in the next 20 years; yes, a fascinating future for Africa fraught with emotions for the West, retorted Mr Silke.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s power utility Eskom  is rolling out three new major power generation  projects with a combined project cost of R170 billion and set to churn out over 11 000MW of power once complete. The three new coal power stations — Kusile Power Station (4 800MW), Medupi Power Station (4 800MW) and Ingula Power Station (1 332MW) — are set to start generating power by 2014 in phases up to 2018.  
The three giant projects have created 40 000 jobs of mammoth project teams currently working on the ground simultaneously.
Eskom portfolio manager Mr Christo Spammer revealed these projects at the conference in a paper also delivered on the first day, giving hope for Southern Africa’s power crisis. The Sadc region currently requires 50 000MW of power at peak but can only generate slightly over 45 000MW, leaving a deficit of 5 000MW.
MIZ and PMSA are the largest associations of project managers in the Sadc region with a combined membership base of over 3 000 project management practitioners.
Earlier this year PMIZ and PMSA entered into a strategic alliance to develop their members through skills sharing and capacity building programmes required in the region to promote use and application of recognised project and portfolio management methodologies.