Egyptian firm to invest Sh460 billion in Kigamboni Industrial Park

Dar es Salaam. Egyptian multinational company firm, Elsewedy Electric is planning to invest $200 million (about Sh460 billion) in the first phase of the Kigamboni Industrial Park, thanks to the favourable business climate.

Revelation of the project – whose implementation is slated to start next month – was made a few days after President Samia Suluhu Hassan met and held talks with the company’s president and CEO, Mr Ahmed El Sewedy, in Egypt during her three-day official visit last week.

The Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (Investment), Prof Godius Kahyarara, told The Citizen that the amount will be spent on the construction of infrastructure and buildings.

In the first phase, which is set to be completed in two years, some 100 manufacturing industries will be set up, creating a total of 10,000 direct jobs.

Prof Kahyarara said the industrial park, which will cover 2.2 million square metres in the first phase, will, among other things, include factories for clothing, food, electronic equipment, fertiliser and raw materials to feed the country’s manufacturing industries.

“The industrial park will also help to facilitate skills and technology upgrading,” he said.

The second phase, which will start immediately after the completion of the first phase, will cover 2.8 million square metres.

This means that the entire project will cover a total of 5 million square metres.

However, Prof Kahyarara did not immediately disclose the number of manufacturing industries to be set up in the second phase or the investment capital.

“They have just started doing analysis for the second phase. As it is, we don’t know how many manufacturing industries will be set up nor the amount of money that will be invested,” he said.

But the PS added that some 40,000 jobs would be created in the second phase, taking the total number of jobs to be created in the entire project to 50,000.

Elsewedy Electric is part, together with Arab Contractors, of the consortium that is building the 2,115-megawatt Julius Nyerere Hydropower Station across the Rufiji River in Morogoro Region.

The company has also invested in other projects, and hopes to invest more in the country.

In the Kigamboni area in Dar es Salaam, the company has built a factory to produce power cables, transformers, and power meters, which is expected to be officially opened next month.

While in Egypt, President Hassan also held bilateral talks with her host, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo.

The Head of State said during their talks that they agreed to strengthen bilateral ties and improve trade relations between the two countries.

President Hassan used his state visit to Egypt to welcome Egyptian investors to come and explore investment opportunities in potential sectors, assuring them of a friendly business environment.

The President cited the sectors as livestock, agriculture, real estate industry, energy, tourism and hospitality, pharmaceutical, transportation, mining, manufacturing and agro-processing industries.

Official data shows that the trade volume between the two countries jumped to Sh87.3 billion in 2020 from Sh84.3 billion recorded in 2018.

President Hassan revealed that the country, through the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), registered a total of 26 projects worth $1.3 billion, creating 2,206 jobs.