Some critical aspects in reclaiming South Africa’s economic powerhouse status are a significant investment in human capital development as well as education and training content that matches what the rest of our global peers are doing and fit-for-purpose infrastructure.
“Anecdotally, the provision of adequate fit-for-purpose education infrastructure plays a key role in allowing any country to achieve its true potential,” says DBI Consulting MD Monty Ditibane, Pr Eng (Tech), B Eng (Civil), MBL. Ditibane is an entrepreneur in the infrastructure, engineering services, energy, finance and technology sectors and founder of a range of engineering and technology businesses.
In addition to engineering advisory services, DBI Consulting focuses on project, programme and portfolio management (P3M). “We invest in infrastructure projects that fit our risk model and appetite,” notes Ditibane. Here the company works with other capital-raising entities to generate funding for bankable projects with alpha returns being a key benchmark.
“In the infrastructure development sector, our professional focus is the transformative potential of what we term social infrastructure,” says Ditibane. This ranges from infrastructure such as education (schools, universities, and technical colleges) to health (clinics, community health centres, hospitals, and specialist health facilities) and security infrastructure (police stations, correctional services facilities and even old age homes.)
Apart from this specialised approach, DBI Consulting is involved in sectors as diverse as roads (provincial and national) and water (demand modelling and water security assessments.) However, education infrastructure is the main arena where the company contributes actively to building the future of the country. “Nurturing talent is an important catalyst to ensure South Africa achieves its true potential and can compete globally,” stresses Ditibane.
Services offered include assessments of educational facilities as per national government guidelines, a complex process that needs to balance the capacity of the national fiscus with the country’s burgeoning need for such infrastructure. “This is where we come in as a critical interface to ensure that these projects are brought to fruition with value for money and quality outputs being our peer-to-peer differentiators,” says Ditibane.
In addition to condition assessments, the company offers feasibility studies for both government and private sector education projects. Its ‘one-stop shop’ multidisciplinary approach ranges from pre-feasibility, feasibility and concept studies to detailed design, including geotechnical investigations, assessing the presence and condition of municipal services and proposing alternative solutions where necessary. It extends to mechanical, electrical and fire engineering, all the way to space planning of classrooms and landscape architecture.
Overall project coordination includes occupational health and safety expertise, environmental management, quantity surveying and civil and structural engineering, as well as transportation engineering and traffic impact assessments. While highly specialised services such as town planning are outsourced, DBI Consulting has comprehensive in-house capabilities. “This allows us to offer a significantly more cost-effective value proposition to our clients,” says Ditibane.
“What gives us the leading edge in the sector is precisely the composition and flexibility of our teams. Due to the challenges facing the national fiscus, we are able to navigate the costing to be highly economical. Therefore, our value for money offering speaks volumes, together with us being a highly differentiated firm by virtue of the speed at which we deliver through technology deployment,” highlights Ditibane.
Education infrastructure provides a platform to launch into ancillary sectors such as roads, electricity, housing and even retail and commercial, which is what Ditibane terms “creating an integrated ecosystem of services.” In terms of private projects, the company can assist from financial modelling to securing funding for bankable projects.
“We push for value for money and allocate resources accordingly,” says Ditibane. The private sector differs significantly from government in terms of its efficiencies, speed at which decisions are taken, availability of capital for bankable projects with a determines set of returns and generally available systems that pass acceptable ethical and governance hurdles.
DBI Consulting has followed a solid growth trajectory to date by integrating its business lines and diversifying its revenue streams to include advisory services, for example. It also does not approach projects on value alone. “The bigger project values allow for cash flow but do not guarantee profitability. If you look at the efficiencies we operate at, we can have a smaller project value but still ensure we achieve a decent profit margin,” explains Ditibane.
Significant opportunities remain in the sector due to major neglect of infrastructure maintenance as well as legacy patterns of past development. “There is sufficient growth to sustain our model of driving education infrastructure and related social infrastructure components,” says Ditibane. “This is why we focus on offering such a broad bouquet of services.”
What continues to give DBI Consulting the leading edge is its strategic alliances with major funding institutions and relationships with other engineering firms. “It is a very deliberate strategy we have adopted not to embed the business as an out-and-out engineering consultancy, but to blend it as a unique boutique consulting engineering and advisory business. We play in the ecosystem of water, roads and resources, where there are a lot of environmental considerations and associated infrastructure requirements.”
This extends to ‘green’ energy solutions and intermodal facilities such as airports, taxi ranks and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems. Looking to the future, Ditibane says a major trend is integrated developments such as the R21 Aerotropolis Corridor, Steyn City and the Waterfall Park Precinct, which provide major office park, light industrial, schools and retail opportunities, reinforcing the long-held model of ‘Live, Work, & Play’. Another key future focus is providing integrated environmental services to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ensure carbon neutrality and how to be a responsible advocate of sustainability principles.
Pull quote: “We have not embedded the business as an out-and-out engineering consultancy but blended it as a unique boutique consulting engineering and advisory business.” – Monty Ditibane, MD, DBI Consulting
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