Schneider Electric offers €50m investment fund to support micro companies in North Africa

The company provided €52m investments in electricity projects in Egypt and North Africa last year

Schneider Electric launched its global strategy "Life Is On", aiming to achieve sustainability, efficiency, reliability, and safety for its customers.
The launch of the strategy comes at a tenuous stage, in which many large shifts seen in the business community, led by a combination of factors, including urbanisation, the trend towards digital applications, and the growing manufacturing process.
Country President of Schneider Electric Egypt and North East Africa Albert Fuchet said the company is keen to launch this strategy in the Egyptian market, as it is a regional hub for their business, and due to its immense potential.
He said, during his speech at a press conference by the company Sunday, that information technology has become an indispensable tool to achieve integration in the production processes and connect all the threads of our lives together in one package.
Schneider Electric Zone President Africa and Caribbean Mohamed Saad said the size of the company's global business is €26bn. Schneider allocates 5% of its business size, which amounts to €1.3bn, to development and innovation in the energy sector.
Saad said Schneider Electric has always sought to provide the latest technology to factories, entities, and governments and that it works on the integration of best practices in energy consumption and automatic control in all production activities.
He explained in a statement to Daily News Egypt, on the sidelines of the press conference, that Schneider Electric allocated a fund with investments of €50m to support micro-enterprises in North Africa during 2015.
Schneider Electric has been focusing on the Egyptian market, as a hub from which the company can expand to the Middle Eastern and North African countries, he said. The company is keen on cooperating in a number of projects that serve Egypt, the most prominent of which is the technical scanning for the Pyramids of Giza.
Throughout 2015, investments in the energy sector in Egypt and North Africa amounted €52m, according to the Head of Industry department at Schneider Electric Egypt and North Africa Mohamed Shahin.
The company works on providing adequate solutions to all sectors by presenting the latest technology for projects, he said. The company contributed in implementing several projects, among which was the project supplying Petrobel Company and Suez Canal with mobile power plants.
Over 12 months, the company's sales recorded €5.7bn through the sales of medium voltage distribution panels and automatic control solutions for energy, Schneider's Deputy Head of IT Moneim El-Fakharany said.
The company also owns more than 250 service centres and more than 90 production sites worldwide, while the size of its business in the industry sector amounts to €5.6bn.