The managers of Bure Integrated Agro-Industrial Park are looking for investors who would be interested in leasing land for less than one dollar per square meter.
The board of the park has not yet adopted a decision meant to attract investors to lease land within the park. Managers at Yirgalem Industrial Park did something similar but a little bit different by negotiating with potential investors to give them cheap land.
Under the leadership of Dagnachew Asres, its CEO, the park has prepared 264 hectares of land thus far. Of that, a quarter has already been allotted to 23 investors.
“We have spent over 4,000 birr (USD 75) to clear the land and build infrastructure so that the land can be leased by investors. Yet we are ready to lease the land for less than one dollar in order to incentivize investors,” said Dagnachew.
Bure is located 411 km north of the capital Addis Ababa and 156 km south-west of Bahir Dar, in the West Gojjam Zone of the Amhara Region in Western Ethiopia. It is one of four agro-processing farms whose construction started during the tenure of former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn. The number has now reached five, as Jimma became the latest to inaugurate the agro-industrial park.
Bure Park is under the Amhara Industrial Parks Development Corporation and was inaugurated in February 2021 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD). Phibela Edible Oil Factory, under the ownership of Belayneh Kinde, the renowned businessperson, is among the investments operating inside Bure.
A power shortage has been the major problem facing plants inside the park. Recently, the managers of the park announced a substation was being constructed to increase the power supplied to the factories. Phibela alone requires 10 megawatts of electricity to run its plants.
