Reuters LUSAKA: Egypt s El Sewedy Cables , one of the biggest cable manufacturers in the Middle East, plans to invest $1 billion across Africa during the next three years, CEO Ahmed El Sewedy said in an interview on Friday. El Sewedy told Reuters that the firm planned to increase its investments in Sudan, where it spent $100 million in 2006, expand in North Africa and set up cable and electronic accessories factories in southern Africa. The company has signed a $12.5 million deal with Zambia s state power utility Zesco to set up two factories for manufacturing transformers and meters used in electricity supply, he said. In the next three years, we plan to expand in North Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and the Arab world. Our planned investment is $1 billion over this period and between $40 million and $50 million of this money will be invested in Zambia, El Sewedy said. El Sewedy produces accessories used to manufacture mobile phones, power and irrigation cables, optic fibre cables and other electronic accessories. The El Sewedy CEO said the company would use Zambia as the base for its expansion into Africa s main trade bloc, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which includes Egypt among its 19 members. We are growing in Africa and the Arab world and our turnover was $1 billion in 2006. This is giving us a drive to keep expanding our business in Africa, he said. El Sewedy said the two Zambian factories, which are scheduled to be operational before the end of December, would be 60 percent owned by El Sewedy Group and 40 percent owned by Zesco. More than 200 Zambians will be employed in the factories, which will be located in Ndola, a copper mining town 300 km (xx miles ) north of the capital Lusaka. Our plans are to train Zambians and transfer our technology, he said, adding that the firm woiuld increase its procurement of Zambian copper. El Sewedy purchased more than $280 million of Zambian copper in 2006.
