Last week, we covered the top ten providers of digital twins on the European continent. Today, we focus on the African continent, highlighting the region’s top providers of digital twin technology and their impact on the wider digital twin landscape. To start, let’s set the scene on the digital twin market in Africa.
Africa and Digital Twins
The continent of Africa is an emerging economic market that could see substantial benefits in using digital twins to enhance economic growth. According to KPMG’s Colin Earp and Peter El Hajj in an article by Devex, digital twins offer emerging markets considerable economic opportunity in their ability to boost production while cutting emissions and costs due to predictive analysis and prototyping.
Similarly, they enable emerging economies to stay integrated with the global value chain, further strengthening economic ties and growth. Consequently, over the last five years, we have seen considerable interest in digital twins from the African continent.
According to Google Trends (see Figure 1), the African country Ethiopia has been the second (under China) most interested country in digital twins over the last half a decade. Staggering, to say the least, Ethiopia only marginally trails China and leads by example compared to economically developed countries such as Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. Similarly, we also see African countries outside of Ethiopia land in the top thirty nations worldwide in terms of interest in the technology.
Our data at the Digital Twin Insider also ties in with this information, with our intelligence platform tracking digital twin growth and news sentiment across the African continent. Our intelligence shows that Africa is directing considerable attention towards digital twins. The next section of this article will outline the top ten digital twin providers in Africa driving this growth.
Top 10 Digital Twin Providers in Africa
1. 4Sight | BluESP
4Sight | BluESP is a digital twin provider based in South Africa. The company has partnered with AspenTech software solutions to develop digital twin solutions for clients. 4Sight uses the Aspen Fidelis Reliability simulation tool to create realistic large-scale digital twins of various complexities, ensuring that all projects are delivered with the same level of accuracy expected from digital twins. 4Sight works across South Africa and global markets to provide cutting-edge solutions.
2. Nedamco Africa
Nedamco Africa provides digital twins in Africa, delivering digital twin solutions to aid industries in water management and biomass. Nedamco Africa provides end-to-end customer solutions with all the bells and whistles you can expect from digital twins, such as real-time data management and optimization. The Nedamco Africa digital twins operate across two countries, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Case studies include an initiative in collaboration with the Dutch government and Ethiopian authorities to create a digital twin of water resources for better management named the Ethiopian SDG6 Water Management Initiative. According to Aqua Tech, the project aims to improve access and quality.
3. James Fisher Asset Information Services (AIS)
Digital twin provider James Fisher Asset Information Services is a leading provider of software solutions for developing regions such as Africa. Utilizing its R2S digital twin methodology and platform, the company looks to transform efficiency globally. Nigeria is one country benefiting from AIS technology and its platform. Specifically, AIS is working with Nigerian oil and gas sector authorities to build digital twins and develop its headquarters in Lagos. Similarly, the company is rolling out a training school in Angola for industry skill development.
4. American Tower Africa
American Tower Africa, a leading provider of infrastructure globally, has built a digital twin for energy assets in Nigeria. The company plans to use the twin to reduce site energy consumption by improving operational efficiency and optimization. The American multinational company predicts it can save over 600,000 liters of fuel per unit through the digital twin and over 3,000 hours of downtime.
5. Exxaro
Exxaro is a mining company located in South Africa. Exxaro has built a digital twin of a mine known as BIP or The Belfast Implementation Project. The digital twin is an exact replica of the mine, reducing downtime and maintenance due to teams being able to access and manage the mine remotely and mitigate potential issues before they occur. The mine is one of the first to have a digital twin.
6. Royal Haskoning
Global engineering consultancy Royal Haskoning works with African organizations to deliver engineering solutions. One string to the company’s bow is its innovative digital twin solutions, which have been used worldwide to transform operations. Examples include using twins to optimize water levels and fight climate change. The consultancy offers solutions through its ‘Twinn’ software technology stack and bespoke solutions for clients.
7. Krypton Mining
Krypton Mining provides world-class digital mining solutions, including digital twin provision. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Krypton Mining offers digital twin solutions for customers and various other digital services, partnering with providers Mine Sence and Dingo to deliver them.
8. Transnova
Leading logistics advisory firm Transnova offers digital twin solutions for customers to improve their supply chains. Based in South Africa, the organization uses supply chain digital twins to optimize supply chain processes by developing exact digital replicas of value chains. Transnova works across Africa to deliver these services.
9. The iGlobe Group
Based in Pretoria, South Africa, The iGlobe Group creates digital twins of assets using real-time data that the company supplies. Founded in 2010 and operating for over 20 years, The iGlobe Group works across sectors such as agriculture and fuel to provide digital twin solutions for its customers.
10. Kriterion
Also based in Pretoria, technology company Kriterion has developed what it calls a ‘Deep Digital Twin’ using artificial intelligence. Harnessing generative AI, the Kriterion team has built multiple digital twin platforms to serve customers and provide world-class predictive maintenance and optimization.
Final Thoughts
This article has explored the top digital twin providers implementing digital twins in Africa. As mentioned in the article’s introduction, digital twins can potentially transform the economic growth of economically developing continents such as Africa due to their efficiency-inducing qualities and cost-saving nature. Check our intelligence platform for more details on the companies mentioned on this list and further information on companies developing solutions.
