(Bloomberg) -- Egis Group, a French construction and engineering company, will open an African headquarters next month to take advantage of the continent’s growing population and its need to buttress its infrastructure against the effects of climate change. 

The firm, which is a third owned by state-controlled Caisse des Depots Groupe, plans to double its annual African revenue to about 140 million euros ($136 million) by 2026. The first step in implementing that plan is opening the African head office in Casablanca in Morocco on Oct. 6, and it will be backed up by a pan-African team. 

The business will be expanded “through local growth and maybe acquisitions,” Laurent Germain, the company’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.

Africa is the fastest-growing continent, and the United Nations expects it to account for for more than half of global population growth by 2050. The doubling of the number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa to more than 2 billion will be accompanied by exponential growth in cities and a need for roads, water reticulation and other infrastructure.

In addition, the continent’s nations are among the hardest hit by climate change, with the Africa Finance Corp. forecasting that strengthening infrastructure to cope with extreme weather events could add $1 trillion to the $2.3 trillion investment that it forecasts Africa already needs.

The growth “in the cities of Africa will be absolutely tremendous in the next years,” Germain said. This “will make it absolutely mandatory for the authorities to tackle the issue of infrastructure,” he said.

Egis wants to expand its engineering and consulting businesses across the continent and is looking for acquisitions, particularly in South Africa, he said.  

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