Mabey Bridge secures Ghana contract for emergency bridges

Published by

Nicky Godding

A Gloucestershire manufacturer has secured a contract to provide 87 emergency bridges for use in flood-hit areas across Ghana following a £42 million guarantee from UK Export Finance (UKEF).

Lydney-based Mabey Bridge will design, manufacture and export the essential infrastructure from its factory in Lydney to Ghana. It will also provide training to the Ghanaian government and local engineers on how to install them, providing the expertise to enable future construction.

UKEF’s financing for projects in Africa has significantly increased from around £600 million in 2018-2019 to more than £2.3 billion in 2020-21 – the highest amount since 2000.

Mabey Bridge has supplied modular steel bridges to rural and urban areas in more than 150 countries worldwide and has often responded to natural disasters, with its bridges rapidly deployed within days or weeks. Working closely with national governments and NGOs, It has worked in North and South America, Asia, Europe, Caribbean, Australia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Michael Treacy, CEO, Mabey Bridge, said: “Sustainable, climate-resilient infrastructure is critically important to post-disaster recovery and development. The financing from UK Export Finance will enable us to successfully deliver this ambitious programme, in partnership with the Ghanaian government.”

Ghana’s coastline spans approximately 340 miles, with a quarter of its population living by the sea, and the country is badly affected by coastal erosion. High levels of rainfall have also destroyed bridges in its towns, cutting off access.

The new bridge programme has been developed by the Government of Ghana’s Ministry of Roads and Highways as part of its strategy to improve connectivity for rural communities post-disaster.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.