Ethiopian Review

By Groum Abate

The first plant in the country of its type has started manufacturing 1,000 pre paid electricity meters.
The factory located around Mexico Square in the premises of the Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation (EEPCo) was set up with an outlay of 30 million birr in a joint venture between EEPCo (40 per cent) and Ethiopian Electrometers (60 per cent), a subsidiary of El Sewedy Group.
Rasha Awad General Manager of the company told Capital that after securing the raw materials from Egypt, where El Sewedy Group is based, the manufucturing line here in Addis Ababa started the production of pre paid power meters.
She said that the support given by the government of Ethiopia, especially Girma Birru Minister of Trade and Industry, made the dream to manufacture the state-of-the-art power meters in the country come true. Part of the plan is for the products to be exported to different African countries.
According to the general manager, the manufucturing plant has three phases that depend mainly on assembly and different phases of calibrating and testing.
Rasha said that the semiconductors that are used as components to assemble the power meters are produced by six companies only in the world and the local value added is considered to be more than 35%. According to the manager, the plant is the first of its kind in East Africa and will help in replacing all old meters with new prepaid ones.
El Sewedy some time ago won a tender to supply 250,000 pre paid meters for EEPCo.
The two parties successfully implemented a pilot project two years ago by installing 25,000 power meters. Out of the 250,000 prepaid power meters that are going to be replaced in Addis Ababa and major regional towns, 120,000 will be imported from Egypt and the rest will be produced in the new factory.
The new factory, with a production capacity of 30,000 meters per month, will also export to neighboring countries creating 100 jobs.
Installation of the prepaid meters would mean that consumers use the precise amount of electricity they have paid for.
EEPCo is scheduled to fully replace existing postpaid electricity meters with prepaid electricity meter shortly.

(capital)