Kenyan mogul Julius Mwale offers $20 million to farmers to restore activity at Mumias Sugar

Omokolade Ajayi -

Kenyan tech tycoon and Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC) owner Julius Mwale has offered Ksh2.2 billion ($20 million) to farmers in an effort to restore sugarcane farming.

According to recent reports, Mwale said the funds will be used to provide farmers with capital to kickstart sugarcane cultivation and sugar production, and to boost the industry at large.

The capital commitment follows his successful Ksh27.6-billion ($249.31 million) bid made through his Tumaz & Tumaz Enterprise as part of a leasing tender to take control of Mumias Sugar over a 15-year period.

Mwale, who received a $200-million (Sh22.1 billion) loan commitment from a leading U.S. bank to strengthen his chances of taking home the lease, placed the highest bid from among eight bidders looking to assume control of the company, according to the receiver-manager, Ponangipali Rao.

His $249.31-million bid was higher than the Ksh8.4 billion ($75.9 million) that Devki Group owner Narendra Raval offered to take control of Mumias and the KSh3.5 billion ($31.61 million) that Kenyan businessman Jaswant Rai offered through his company, Rai Group.

Mwale’s $20-million commitment is expected to go to farmers who abandoned the Mumias plantation after the sugar-production company ran into a financial crisis three years ago.

In addition, Mwale disclosed that a sum of KSh2.2 billion ($20 million), Ksh887 million ($8 million) and Ksh221 million ($2 million) will be allocated, respectively, to revive two ethanol plants owned by the company, its power generation unit and its water-bottling plant.

Mwale also plans to allocate Sh2.2 billion ($20 million) each to build an airport, an agricultural research university, a sugar tourist resort, a housing project and a hospital at the Mumias complex.

Mwale is the president and CEO of SBA Technologies, a New York-based company founded in 2003.

He is also the lead investor in MMTC, a $2-billion community-owned sustainable metropolis with an extensive medical and technology complex that contains a shopping and residential unit, a golf resort and a convention center.