Engineering leaders called for the rapid adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM), artificial intelligence and advanced geospatial systems to address skills shortages, improve project delivery and strengthen infrastructure development across Africa, Capital reported.
The call was made at the opening of the 27th Ethiopian Association of Civil Engineers (EACE) Convention and International Infrastructure Conference at the Sheraton Addis Hotel, held under the theme "Building Africa 2050: Engineering Resilient, Sustainable, and Smart Infrastructure". According to Capital, the conference brought together industry executives, government officials, engineers, academics and international partners.
Participants warned that Africa's development ambitions could be constrained by project-delivery bottlenecks, a growing shortage of certified project-management professionals and an estimated annual infrastructure-financing gap of between $68 billion and $100 billion. Speakers said finance alone would not solve the problem without addressing structural weaknesses in the construction ecosystem, including limited technical capacity, fragmented supply chains, weak project controls, low labour productivity and slow digital adoption.
At the domestic level, Capital reported, Ethiopian contracting and consulting firms continue to face operational challenges including shortages of raw materials, administrative skill gaps, inconsistent project-management standards and limited use of digital tools. Engineering leaders said broader use of BIM, AI and geospatial technologies could help improve planning, reduce delays, strengthen cost control and support better monitoring of projects through their life cycles.
Amanuel Mekonnen Hailemariam, President of EACE, said Ethiopia's infrastructure sector was expanding rapidly alongside broader economic and technological development, pointing to projected national economic growth, rising mobile-network coverage, renewable-energy investment and major projects including the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, the planned regional mega-airport hub and the National Corridor Development Programme.
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"The core issue facing our industry is not merely the volume of assets constructed, but the precision, sustainability and capital efficiency with which they are executed," Amanuel said.
He said the Council of Ministers had recently endorsed a comprehensive construction-industry policy framework intended to improve safety, strengthen regulatory compliance and accelerate the use of BIM and digital-management tools in public and private projects.
Engineer Zahra Abdulhadi, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Construction and Real Estate Cluster at MIDROC Investment Group, said integrated project delivery required strong systems for managing time, cost and quality. She said institutionalising international standards, including Project Management Professional certification and BIM, would help Ethiopian engineering firms compete more effectively alongside international contractors and development-finance institutions.
Professor Alemayehu Teferra, recipient of the EACE Lifetime Achievement Award and Chairman of the General Assembly, welcomed international delegations from Germany, Cyprus, Italy, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Somalia, Djibouti and Angola. The multi-day conference includes technical panels organised around six thematic tracks covering structural and seismic engineering, transport and logistics, digital infrastructure, smart urban planning, sustainable construction and project-management systems.
