VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann has reported that the war in Ukraine will lead to a reorganisation of supply chains in the mechanical and plant engineering sector, strengthening closer economic ties between Europe and Africa.
VDMA, Europes’s most important Mechanical Engineering Industry Association has established training centres in Botswana, Nigeria and Kenya, where prospective skilled workers are trained on modern machinery and equipment as part of the initiative “Skilled Workers For Africa”.
“After the Ukraine war, many companies from the mechanical and plant engineering sector will try to position themselves more resiliently and review their supply chains to this end.
This can bring the two neighbouring continents of Europe and Africa closer together. Africa wants to promote free trade and thus has similar goals to the EU,” he emphasised.
Brodtmann during the visit of the Ambassador of Botswana, Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba and the Nigerian Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, he said two top African diplomats had come to Frankfurt at the invitation of the VDMA to exchange ideas on future trade and to find out about the development of the VDMA’s “Skilled Workers For Africa” initiative.
As part of this initiative, training centres have been established in Botswana, Nigeria and Kenya, where prospective skilled workers are trained on modern machinery and equipment. Ambassador Masire-Mwamba stressed that the aim was not only to train skilled workers for the African market, but to make young people fit enough to compete in the global market.
 
Ambassador Tuggar added that he hoped German and European industry would have more courage to invest in Africa and make better use of the opportunities for more trade between the two continents.
European technology can play an important role in moving African countries forward economically. The expansion of renewable energies is a good example of this.
