Harare City Council has extended the Memorandum of Understanding with its Egyptian partner El-Sewedy Electrometer. The memo will see El Sewedy Electrometer establish of a US $15m pre-paid smart water meter manufacturing plant in Harare. This will take place in 14 days in order to see if the business is workable.
The MoU was signed in May this year. The plant will create over 200 projected direct jobs for locals and more within the value chain. Moreover, the joint venture company will also finance, install and manage commercial prepaid smart water meters for the city and supply meters to other cities within the region.
El Sewedy
Acting chamber secretary Mr Charles Kandemiri advised the approval of the extension. This was after he advised that the feasibility studies had not been carried out. As a result, he was now requesting authority to extend the MoU to finalise the matter.
The city is already looking for land for the business. El-Sewedy Electrometer supports utilities across the world with metering solutions and services that improve revenue collection.
Also read: The role of water meters in mitigating the water crisis in Africa
The city says El- Sewedy has 20 m meters running in 46 countries and can produce 5m meters per annum. Acting town clerk Mrs. Josephine Ncube said the setting up of the assembly plant in the country would lead to reduced prices of prepaid meters. This will save the country on imports as the local plant will take care of assembling the components.
She also expressed her faith in the company’s capabilities sighting their demonstration of their capacity in terms of their presence around the globe. Deputy Mayor Councilor Mupamawonde said the company had factories in Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, Czech Republic, India, Ethiopia, Ghana and Zambia. Company chairman Mr Ahmed Sewedy said they intend to set up the company before year-end.
