Toshiba presented at Japan Africa Public Private Economic Forum held in Nairobi, Kenya
On May 3, 2022, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan held the plenary meeting of the Second Japan-Africa Public-Private Economic Forum in Nairobi, Kenya jointly with the Government of Kenya and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). Mr Iwasuke Shimada, Managing director of Toshiba Africa (Pty) Ltd participated in the forum and had an opportunity to speak at the session on “Innovation, Integration and Industrialisation in Africa
Read the speech in full below.
Good afternoon.
I am Iwasuke Shimada, the managing director of Toshiba Africa. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to be part of this occasion.
I want to talk about how Toshiba can contribute to Africa’s sustainable development through our energy business.
Toshiba has long been committed to solving global social issues. We are advancing the quest for carbon neutrality and resilient
infrastructure, making full use of our strengths in energy, infrastructure, devices and digital technologies to deliver solutions
that only Toshiba can.
We remain true to our longstanding basic commitment, “Committed to People, Committed to the Future“ when carrying out business
in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
Among the products and solutions we provide in Africa, I would particularly like to talk about our involvement in geothermal energy
development.
At Kenya’s Olkaria power station, we have installed 4 geothermal turbines. They generate 300megawatt of power for the national grid.
We are also about to install our small scale wellhead geothermal power equipment “Geoportable” at the Aluto Langano power station in
Ethiopia. Geoportable achieves a quick start-up for power generation without the time-consuming construction of large scale conventional
geothermal plants.
We feel privileged to be able to work closely with various stakeholders to develop geothermal power in Africa. With financial support
from the Japanese government, we have provided equipment and maintenance for plants, and concluded a number of MoUs with African
countries for technology transfers and skill development.
The discussions at last December’s meeting of this forum confirmed that skills development assisted by Japanese organisations is
contributing to advancing Africa’s industry. When we hosted interns from the Africa Business Education initiative programme at
Toshiba, their enthusiasm to study and desire to become future industry leaders in their home countries was clear to see. We will
be happy if the Japanese government continue these programmes and look forward to working together with future industry leaders.
Clean and stable energy supply is an important consideration in building resilient infrastructure and supporting a growing economy.
In this overview of our capabilities, you can see that Toshiba offers comprehensive solutions in the key areas of generate, transfer,
store and smart use of energy. We would welcome collaborations with you in these fields too, to increase the availability of
electricity power supply and advance Africa’s industrialization. We also encourage Japanese government to support financing of
sustainable energy development projects in Africa.
As a private sector company, we look forward to continued progress for the African Continental Free Trade Area. We hope it will
open up a continent-wide market and boost adoption of our products and solutions.
I pledge our commitment to Africa, and our determination to work closely with partners here. As Helen Keller tellingly said,
“alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” I hope you will all join hands with Toshiba, so that we can all work
together on Africa’s sustainable development.
Thank you.
