A subsidiary of Jupiter Group, an Ethiopian company in the hospitality, retail trading and construction businesses, together with a Chinese electronics manufacturer established a joint-venture company that assembles energy meters in Ethiopia.
Signing the joint venture agreement on Thursday, Melaku Bisrat, managing director of MYBAB Electronics Manufacturing PLC, the newly-established JV Company, and Hu An, regional sales director for Shenzhen Clou Electronics Co., Ltd, said that the assembly plant will assemble 300,000 pieces of energy meters within the six month of starting its operation. Creating 100 jobs at the initial stages, the project is also expected to reach 900,000 pieces of meter production in a matter of two years while creating 250 additional jobs, Melaku said.
According to An, the Ethiopian plant is going to be the fourth plant to be installed in Africa. Currently, the manufacturer has plants in Egypt, Ghana and Nigeria. According to both Melaku and An, the JV is coming at an opportune time where the Ethiopian Electric Utility (EEU) has floated a bid to procure 1.2 million pieces of energy meters. Bidders are expected to supply the meters within two year’s time. During which time, MYBAB Electronics will reach the capacity to supply the stated amount. Further down the road, the plant is also expected to attain the capacity to assemble a complete-knocked down parts of the meters, locally. According to Melaku MYBAB holds 70 percent of the JV’s stake while the remaining 30 percent is the held by Shenzhen Clou.
In a related news, MYBAB is geared to assemble sales registrations machines sourcing the parts from Serbia. According to Melaku, Galeb Group, a Serbia-based fiscal cash registers manufacturer has agreed to supply parts and provide technical trainings for 20 local staffs. At the end of the current fiscal year, Melaku projects that between 8,000 to 10,000 units of fiscal cash registers to be assembled locally.
Both plants are housed in a 2000sqm compound around Gerji area and have an initial capital of a total of USD 5.5 million, Melaku noted. MYBAB Electronics is part of a family run group of companies that include Jupiter Trading PLC, Jupiter International Hotel and JB Construction Company.
