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CAREERTIP: Construction Professionals should start treating AI like a new colleague

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Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t going away and construction professionals need to embrace it and start working with it as if it were a new colleague. Across all industries, including construction, the adoption of AI is rapidly gaining momentum. This is because technology has finally advanced to the point where it can handle the complex and unstructured data involved in construction projects. Experts predict that AI will continue to develop into what they call "composite AI." Construction professionals, however, have some concerns about adopting AI. These concerns include: Regulatory Framework: Construction professionals must ensure that they comply with all applicable laws and regulations. They must also protect themselves, as AI can be programmed with specific guidelines to produce desired outputs. Ethics : There are important legal and ethical issues to consider when using AI. For example, who is liable if something goes wrong? Who is responsible if a disaster occurs as
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NEWS: Africa’s largest asset manager PIC leads pension funds investing in continent’s infrastructure via AFC

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In a significant milestone for African pension capital being deployed for domestic infrastructure and industrial development, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Africa’s largest asset manager, with over US$150 billion in assets under management, plans an inaugural investment in the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the continent’s leading infrastructure solutions provider.

PIC has given formal notification to make a US$100 million equity investment in the AFC. The approved investment from the South African pension fund manager follows recent equity inflows to AFC from the Seychelles Pension Fund, the Government of Sierra Leone, the Republic of Togo, the Central Bank of Guinea and further investment from the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund, which are among the 32 equity investors in AFC. These investments further embed the active collaboration between African sovereigns, financial institutions and the private sector.

AFC has a proven track record of developing key transformational projects on the continent, providing pragmatic solutions for Africa's infrastructure deficit and challenging operating environment. The Corporation recently announced its joint acquisition of Lekela Power, Africa’s biggest renewables independent power producer (IPP), with plans to more than double operating capacity of the operating assets within four years. Other AFC projects include the ARISE Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Gabon, an industrial ecosystem building value from the forestry and minerals industry, which was last year certified as the world’s first carbon neutral industrial zone by the Swiss verification group SGS.

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“The PIC is delighted to partner with the AFC in the development, industrialization and growth of the African continent,” said Kabelo Rikhotso, Chief Investment Officer for PIC. “Our clients’ investment mandates allow us to invest in the rest of the African continent. We believe that this partnership will assist us to deliver on that mandate and to diversify our growing portfolio. We are confident of the future prospect of this investment and its potential positive societal benefits.”

AFC’s investment footprint spans 35 countries across Africa and a pipeline of projects that blend positive social and environmental impact with superior risk-adjusted returns. The Corporation’s A3 investment-grade rating from Moody’s enables beneficial access to global capital markets and underscores the confidence of Africa’s decision makers in AFC’s role as a key institution for sustainable economic development.

As a shareholder, PIC will further benefit from co-investment opportunities and access to AFC’s formidable project development and risk-mitigated projects on the continent across the power, transport and logistics, natural resources, telecommunications and heavy industrial sectors.

“This equity investment is a significant vote of confidence in AFC and connects us to a very important source of capital in Africa,” said Samaila Zubairu, AFC President & CEO. ”African pension funds have a key role to play in financing the instrumental infrastructure urgently needed on the continent and we look forward to a long-term partnership for a prosperous African future.

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