TWF, TARC Join Forces to Enhance African Content in 24,000km Railway Network Across 32 Countries
In a bid to bolster intra-African trade and enhance value retention within the continent, stakeholders are forging partnerships and pathways to advance Africa’s integrated market agenda.
The Welding Federation (TWF) and Trans Africa Railway Connection Limited (TARC Ltd) have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at bolstering African content management in welding and related services for the TARC project.
TWF, headquartered in South Africa, is a pan-African organization dedicated to fostering welding capacity within the region to cater to the needs of its manufacturing industries. With a membership spanning across Africa, TWF seeks to promote domestic welding expertise and infrastructure. On the other hand, TARC is a monumental trans-Africa railway connection project, spanning corridors across 32 African countries, with the potential to create around 100,000 job opportunities (both direct and indirect) along all connected routes.
Beyond the significant employment prospects offered by TARC, the infrastructure presents a substantial investment opportunity for stakeholders, ensuring sustainable returns on investment over medium- and long-term durations as intra-African trade flourishes.
Chukwuma Magnus Nwakama, Project Director of TARC, hailed the MoU signed by Christian R. Gutzwiller, Chairman of TARC, and Ayo Adeniyi, Executive Director of TWF, in a closed-door session, as a significant step toward realizing the objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
Dr. Hamed Abdel-Aleem, the newly elected President of The Welding Federation, expressed his satisfaction with the development, highlighting TWF’s commitment to fostering impactful initiatives aimed at improving Africa’s situation. He underscored the importance of building robust connections and capabilities across various sectors to maximize opportunities within Africa’s manufacturing value chain.
The MoU entrusts TWF with the responsibility of coordinating all welding personnel certification, welding inspection, audits, and accreditation of manufacturers’ welder services for the TARC project. This aligns seamlessly with TWF’s core objective of enhancing African content utilization and optimization across various sectors within Africa’s manufacturing landscape.
Completed, TARC is a 20 million metric ton steel project that will involve the application of both generic and specialized welding processes in the construction and installation of thousands of kilometers of railway tracks and couches across key corridors to boost trade of products and services. It is hoped that governments across all African transit corridors will hurriedly give the necessary approvals where necessary for commencement of initial activities on this project for the benefit it guarantees.
Likewise, TWF also looks forward to engaging the African Union and other regional associations or communities on how it intends to drive a framework that will see increased participation through technical collaborations between manufacturers on the TARC project and other projects across Africa’s energy and mining space.
Related Posts
Implementation of this mou will see manufacturers and service providers with verified capacity provide a combined target of sixty percent fabrication activities on the project, both at the construction and operational maintenance phase of the project. TWF hopes to drive a combination of quantitative and qualitative mix in the services thrust upon manufacturers and service providers to establish capacities for subsequent railway projects across Africa.
Welding is a specialist field that demands verified competence. TWF will set up a specific committee to work with manufacturers to verify capacity appropriateness and provide bridges where required to see increased participation on the project. The target will also include providing frameworks for increased collaboration between manufacturers across all levels to achieve and surpass bench mark expectations.
