Nexans, a top global cable manufacturer, will scale up its investments in Ghana in readiness to tap the opportunities in the emerging oil industry, Frederic Vincent, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company has said.
Mr Vincent said its local unit, Nexans Kabelmetal Ghana Ltd, is offering training, upgrading machines and learning more about specifications in order to get the staff ready for the transition into manufacturing cables for the oil and gas sector.
He made this known in an interview with a cross section of journalists during a duty tour of the country.
In Ghana, Nexans, specialises in production and supply of cables and cabling solutions for the infrastructure, industry, building and the local area network (LAN) markets.
“The company is providing… training and future development in the industry, meeting specifications and benchmarks,” he said.
The corporate entity plans to invest $1.3 million in the local unit in the next three years in readiness for meeting future needs and development of Ghana.
This will complement the $1.5 million invested in replacing old machinery with brand new ones and building the human resource capacity.
Mr Vincent said the aim was to enhance and create local content through leveraging on the company’s global brand for the benefit of local units.
He said the company’s emphasis would be on the future development in oil and gas industry, where it is already a major player.
Also, the company’s presence in Ghana fitted perfectly into its global strategy of meeting the energy resource needs of countries, especially those which were embarking on active programmes of electrification to enhance industrial development.
In this connection, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) utility programmes present to the company a huge opportunity, especially as ECG is both a shareholder and customer.
Nexans Global owns 51 per cent in Nexans Ghana, 25 per cent by the National Investment Bank and 24 per cent by the ECG.
Mr Vincent said the commercial development of transmission or distribution of electricity was the real basis for development.
“Ghana is part of the strategy to expand growth that is profitable growth, to ensure value for shareholders,” Mr Vincent said, adding that the company is targeting between 5 and 10 per cent growth in the country this year.
On how the company was able to avoid going down during the financial crisis, Mr Vincent said it was because of its strong financial position and continuous investment into research and innovation to ensure increased market share.
In addition, the company is investing about 200 million euros per year in researching into fully sophisticated cables, innovation in flexible renewable energy and making acquisitions in emerging markets.
He said the African wide market is important as there is increasing interest of investors in the continent as the business investment destination.
The Group has production facilities in 39 countries, including the one in Tema, employs 22,700 workers and a sales presence across the globe.
While in the country, the Nexans Chairman and CEO held talks with key state organisations in the energy and infrastructure sectors and also met with a team of Nexans staff who were on strategic global leadership training in Ghana.
His visit was also part of a tour of some of the company’s production sites as part of a global strategy by the company to weather the global economic crisis, and maintain its position as a market leader, controlling seven per cent of the worldwide cable market with more than €5 billion revenues of sales in the highly fragmented market.