South Africa needed to invest in and grow its infrastructure network to best position Gauteng as a financial hub and to retain the country’s status as the gateway to Africa, said Gauteng member of executive committee (MEC) for finance and economic affairs Mandla Nkomfe on Thursday.

The MEC said that the private sector, particularly financial services, had to partner with government in efforts to build Gauteng into a “global city region” successfully competing in the global economy.

“If Gauteng does not grow - its infrastructure, in particular - it shall lose its status as a major centre of economic activity in South Africa, the Southern African Development Community and the African continent,” he said at the inaugural Gauteng Financial Services Summit, in Sandton.

Despite being the smallest province in South Africa, holding only 1.4% of the country’s geographical span, Gauteng had a 10.5-million population base and contributed more than 35% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

With increasing competition from West African countries, particularly Nigeria, South Africa needed to push its infrastructure spend and grow its economy to retain its position as the gateway to Africa.

It was predicted that within the next ten years, Nigeria could overtake South Africa as the dominant economy on the continent, he added.

The key was how the provincial government and the financial services sector could work together to make Gauteng a globally competitive city and tackle its infrastructure bottlenecks.

The financial services sector, which was primarily based in Gauteng, could play a strategic economic role in the economic activity of the country.

Nkomfe said that large South African firms, particularly the financial services companies, held over R470-million in corporate reserves, accounted for over 18% of the province’s GDP and accounted for almost R650-billion market capitalisation on the JSE.

The provincial government allocated R30.6-billion to fund infrastructure investment over the next three years to deal with infrastructure backlogs and meet future requirements.

However, the MEC commented that the way infrastructure projects were planned needed to improve to efficiently and effectively roll them out. Reflective, creative and “out of the proverbial box” thinking was required to design innovative solutions to deal with Gauteng’s developmental challenges.