The construction industry is the largest and fastest-growing industry in Africa. It employs a huge number of people, and is one of the most important sectors of the continent’s economy. Each year, billions of dollars are invested in this sector through government funding, consortiums, and private investors.

 

In 2020, the African construction market was valued at roughly USD $5.4 billion. This is only set to increase as the market is expected to register a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.4% between 2021 and 2026.

 

This rapid pace of growth is driven by both public sector spending on infrastructure development projects and private investment in residential housing units as well as commercial buildings such as shopping malls with retail outlets. Energy, power and transport projects have consistently been key contributors to the sectoral mix of projects underway, with the real estate sector – predominantly commercial real estate – emerging as a critical sector in recent years.

 

It’s safe to say due to fast-paced urbanisation, the construction industry in Africa is booming and will likely continue to do so for years to come. The construction industry is a huge part of the economy across the continent and construction requirements are diverse and include everything from quarrying and mining to forestry and construction of infrastructure such as roads and buildings. In 2018, quarrying and mining accounted for over 10% of global GDP. The sector has been growing at an average rate of 2% per year over the past decade.

 

West Africa recorded the highest number of projects on the continent, around 153 projects, followed by Southern Africa with 106 projects. East Africa came in third with 102 projects. In value terms, West Africa registered USD $172.8 billion, while South Africa and North Africa recorded USD $147.7 billion and USD $132.2 billion, respectively. For most African regions in 2021, the largest number of projects worked on were transport ones apart from North Africa, where real estate was the largest number of projects that broke ground throughout the year. 

 

With an ever-increasing demand for construction and growth, the world's largest manufacturer of earthmoving equipment, Caterpillar Inc., has a huge presence on the continent. As a global manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives, Caterpillar equipment is globally trusted and well-known to be tough and reliable enough to withstand even the harshest conditions on the African continent.

 

As one of the continent’s largest authorised Caterpillar dealers, Mantrac Group boasts dealerships in more than 10 African countries and has been providing and offering the very best construction solutions across the continent for the past 40 years.

 

Our network of dealerships allows us to offer our customers access to various equipment and products and provide solutions tailored to each customer’s specific needs. We have extensive experience with all types of construction projects—from roads to mines, railroads, quarrying, power plants and pretty much everything pertaining to the industry.

 

The teams at our dealerships will help you determine which piece of equipment will best fit your needs based on factors such as project type, terrain type, number of hours worked per day/week/month, etc., so that your machine will be able to perform efficiently under any circumstance or weather condition possible within this diverse and extensive region.

 

From construction to quarrying, paving to mining and all necessary industry equipment, Mantrac provides cost effective and time sensitive end to end solutions every time. Our end-to-end solutions include a host of services that result in our customers getting the most out of their equipment.

 

The African construction market continues to grow at a rapid pace, fuelled by an influx of private investment as well as more public funding via development partners. Africa is considered the next frontier for growth in construction, and although the continent faces its unique challenges such as the lack of skilled labour, experts continue to predict that the construction industry will continue to grow and boom in the coming years.