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| ConMin West Africa: New date for trade fair for construction machinery in Nigeria The international trade fair for construction machinery and mining, ConMin West Africa, in Abuja, Nigeria and the parallel conference "National Mining Summit" will be postponed from April 2017 to June 13-15, 2017. Dr. Reinhold Festge, member of the board and former president of the Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau (VDMA) [the German Engineering Federation] as well as Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President and CEO of the Nigerian Dangote Group, are expected to attend the fair. For a long time, Dangote has been committed to a sustainable economic development of African countries. The international airport in Abuja – the capital of Nigeria and the venue of ConMin West Africa – will be fully renovated in March/April and will therefore be closed. "Since we expect many exhibitors and conference participants from other parts of the country and abroad, the use of the airport is important to us. That is why we have decided to postpone ConMin West Africa by seven weeks, " explains Peter Bergleiter, Managing Director of IMAG GmbH. Many large international companies, particularly from China, Germany, Japan, Nigeria and the USA (including Bosch, Case Construction, Hitachi, John Deere, Komatsu, Schwing-Stetter, ThyssenKrupp and Volvo) are expected to attend the trade fair. At a joint stand, the VDMA and the Dangote Academy of the Dangote Group will present their educational project in Nigeria. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. In the future there will be opened an education center in the Nigerian city of Obajana according to the German model offering vocational education and training in the fields of industrial mechanics, electrical engineering and mechatronics. The partnership in Nigeria is part of the VDMA "Specialists for Africa" initiative, which aims at establishing training centers in the three African countries of Nigeria, Kenya and Botswana, as well as educating and training a total of 1,000 skilled workers within three years. Together with the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, as well as associations and organizations in Germany and Africa, the VDMA supports its member companies in the cultivation of the African market. "Many German machine builders see good business opportunities in some African countries, especially in Africa's most economically strong and populous country, Nigeria, with far-reaching plans to diversify the economy as well as major investments in infrastructure, " Dr. Reinhold Festge says, explaining the engagement of the VDMA in Africa. "German machines can only put their horsepower to good use when local specialists are able to operate, maintain and service them. This will also enable local companies – both German and African – to be able to work efficiently and increase their productivity. In this sense, the 'educational initiative' supports the economic efforts on site and integrates, as it were, the German small and medium-sized companies as well as the experiences of the best suppliers of vocational education and training." With 26,000 employees in Lagos, the Dangote Group is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa. It is the largest cement producer in Africa and has production sites for sugar, salt, pasta, juice, tomato paste, steel, oil and gas. write your comments about the article :: © 2017 Construction News :: home page |