CAIRO - Wadi Holdings group and Medsofts, a supply chain management company, launched a new investment on Sunday, funded by Commercial Bank of Egypt CIB with LE86 million ($14.3 million), to finance the new bilateral Nile Company for Stevedoring and Storage, which will boost the river transport sector in Egypt. The CIB contributed with 50 per cent of the total project costs, while the other 50 per cent were funded by the Wadi Group and Medsofts. The total investments amounted to LE212 million in the first phase. The CIB fund will be allocated to purchase stevedore equipment, river barges as well as silos for transporting and storing goods. The new company is seen as a vital project in the river transport sector as it connects the Nile with Egyptian ports. "It's high time to use the Nile for transport purposes by linking it with ports, which made us come up with the idea of launching the Nile Company for Stevedoring and Storage, initially in the port of Alexandria," said Salah Tawfiq, Nile Stevedoring and Storage Managing Director. River transport is characterised by many features: it consumes less fuel, which could reduce the government's transport costs estimated at LE50 billion per annum. Larger amounts of goods can be transported on rivers with less pollution than on roads, not to mention that river transport is less accident-prone. Tawfiq added that the present time was very good for investments in the river transport sector. They would boost the national economy, as grain imports reached 15 million tonnes per annum, expected to gradually increase in the coming period. Many problems in the transport and storage sector would require an urgent solution. For his part, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wadi Group, Musa Freiji, said that the new project constituted a boost for the port of Alexandria, one of most vital ports in Egypt, and aimed to achieve a breakthrough in river transport. "The project will shorten the waiting period of ships in Egyptian ports, allowing goods to be transported without delay, stored in silos or distributed all over the country. "On the other hand, the project is in tune with the Wadi Group's investment strategy. The group aims at integrating its resources and services. The project will enable us to move our poultry farms to Assiut, which will require a new infrastructure in grain delivery, above all in an environment-friendly way," he added. The signing ceremony between the two companies and the CIB was attended by Salah Tawfik, Nile Stevedoring and Storage Managing Director; Musa Freiji, the Chairman of the Board of Directors; Tony Freiji, Wadi Holding Group Executive Manager and Ramzi Nasrallah, the Deputy Director and Operation Manager of Wadi Group and Neven Wafqy, CIB Managing Director of Credit and Marketing. Medsofts was created in 2001 to address a market need in facilitating the commodity supply chain in the Middle East and North Africa. Sharing a similar success, the Wadi Group comprises numerous companies focusing on delivering high quality products to consumers and businesses. "The company intends to increase local export investments from LE100 million to LE914 million by adopting the strategy of added value to Egyptian goods to create new products," said Ramzi Nasrallah, Wadi Group Deputy Director and Operation Manager.
