Leading South African multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Gibb, which marked its sixtieth anniversary in late June, is aiming to materially expand its African footprint in the coming years and has set a target of deriving 30% of its yearly revenues of around R1-billion from the rest of the continent.

The company has transformed itself from a two-person partnership in Cape Town in 1956 to South Africa’s largest black-owned engineering and architectural firm, with some 900 employees and black ownership of 67%.

However, CEO Richard Vries believes there is significant potential in the rest of the continent and reports that the company is gearing up the business to pursue infrastructure opportunities in Southern, Western and Eastern Africa.

In 2012, Gibb nearly met its 30% goal, but the slump in commodities has placed strain on a number of African countries, which has resulted in a fall in the continent’s revenue contribution.

Nevertheless, there is significant pent-up demand for Gibb’s core services in the areas of water, power and transportation and Vries reports that the group is also diversifying into oil, gas and mining to ensure that it is in a stronger position to participate in those sectors when the cycle recovers.

Gibb is also focusing on developing turnkey capabilities, positioning itself to “originate” projects and take them to “bankability”.

“Africa has a huge infrastructure requirement of around $100-billion a year, but there is still a dearth of bankable projects,” Vries told Engineering News ahead of the company’s anniversary celebration on June 30, which was addressed by the late black business personality, Don Mkhwanazi (63), who was also Gibb chairperson.

In what turned out to be Mkhwanazi’s last formal business address, he described Gibb as “testament to how a large black-owned business can work effectively and consistently to demonstrate excellence”. Gibb, he argued, was a “shining example of black industrialisation in motion”.

Mkhwanazi died following a heart attack in Durban on the night of Friday July 1.