Sameer to invest in own power plant

By Macharia Kamau

Nairobi, Kenya: Tyre manufacturer Sameer Africa, plans to build its own power plant to cut dependence on electricity from Kenya Power.

 The company Wednesday announced that it would put up a six-megawatt coal plant at its tyre manufacturing plant in Nairobi that will be ready by 2016.

The firm expects the investment to substantially reduce its power bill that currently stands at between Sh20 and Sh30 million every month.

“We are still on the drawing phase, but we are looking at having a thermal coal power plant of about six megawatts. We should be able to start producing power by 2016… at the moment we are still in the planning stage, which will tell us how much we will invest and how we will go about financing it,” said Allan Walmsley, the  Managing Director of Sameer Africa.

Kenya is rated as costly investment destination, partly due to the country’s high electricity cost that retails at about 18 US cents, compared to other destinations that retail at below nine US cents.

This has made locally manufactured goods costly and unable to compete in the local and international markets. The Energy Ministry pans to increase electricity generation by over 5,000MW over the next three years, a move that is hoped to bring down the cost of electricity.

The firm also announced that it is close to concluding the search for a technical and capital partner. Walmsley said Sameer had already identified potential partners and negotiations are ongoing, but did not disclose any details.