The centre, a first for GE in Africa, is another big investment for GE, affirming that Africa and South Africa continue to be a good investment destination for big businesses, and that solutions to Africa’s challenges should come from Africa.
The centre is the 10th GE Innovation Centre globally and the 1st Innovation Centre for GE in Africa.
It is the first GREEN and LEED certified GE building in Sub-Saharan Africa and will be GE’s centre of excellence (COE) for innovation in Africa.
As part of GE’s continued commitment to support SMEs the building was 90%+ built, designed, and executed by local businesses. It will be the home to GE’s innovation across Africa within its key business sectors such as aviation, energy, healthcare, oil and gas, power and transportation and will serve as the new headquarters for GE Healthcare.
The Centre will enable skills and SME development in Africa and serve as the basecamp for the Londvolota Enterprise Development Trust which launched in 2015 with a commitment to accelerating supplier development in South Africa and the equipping of SMEs to participate in the GE value chain.
In South Africa GE has partnered with Transnet SOC to manufacture locomotives for export into the rest of Africa and on the Healthcare side was selected as the key technology provider for the new Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital, due to open later this year.
