UWP Consulting (Tanzania) opened its doors as a partnership between Tanzanian professionals and South African engineering consulting practice UWP Consulting a decade ago.

The Tanzanian business has successfully completed roads and water projects valued at more than $10 million, with structures and capacity building assignments further expanding its portfolio in the last few years.

The company was started after Henry Catma, an engineer based in Dar es Salaam, responded to UWP’s search for an individual or small company to form a joint venture in Tanzania.

The timing was particularly good as Catma and four other Tanzanian professionals were in the initial stages of establishing a local company called Tangroup Professionals Ltd or TANPROL.

“It was easy to integrate TANPROL with UWP SA to form UWP Consulting (Tanzania) since both were targeting the same markets,” says Catma, who has served as managing director of the company from its inception.

For several months Catma was the only full time employee in the fledgling Tanzanian business, but the first major breakthrough came in 2006 when three municipal road upgrading projects were awarded in succession and two more engineers joined the firm.

Today UWP Consulting (Tanzania) has a staff complement of 20, including six professional engineers, and has successfully completed numerous projects alone and in joint venture with UWP SA.

Notable awards include the design of the 65km Tanga-Horohoro and 78km Peramiho-Mbinga roads, and supervision of the high profile Lower Ruvu Water Treatment Plant providing potable water to Dar es Salaam.

The company is looking to increase its client base by exploring opportunities in the private sector, in mining and through joint ventures with other professional firms in airport, railway and harbour projects.

“We are also hoping to implement a strong succession plan by employing young professionals, providing training and giving them the opportunity to acquire shares. This is a continuous process which began in 2014 when our first young professionals acquired a shareholding in UWP Consulting (Tanzania).”