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Julius Mwale, a Kenyan businessman and the owner of Mwale Medical and Technology City, has partnered with U.S.-based KE International to build a battery plant in the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo to power smart cities.
In accordance with a recent agreement signed by KE International, a U.S. engineering and infrastructure firm, to construct the plant in the DRC, Mwale has been named as one of the company’s key partners in the battery project.
The news comes after Mwale, who lost out in his bid for a leasing tender to revive Mumias Sugar, a financially distressed sugar company, inked fundraising deals for the DRC plant at a recent international conference attended by various financiers and partners.
“We are investing in the DRC to build a 16-gigawatt (16 terawatt) battery manufacturing plant to help power our smart cities in Kenya and throughout Africa,” he said. “The new collaborations will allow us to expand the Mwale Medical Tourism City model across Africa, where we have secured 18 locations for smart city expansion.”
The plant will be built next to the Kenyan businessman’s cobalt and nickel mines in the DRC. It will manufacture electrical power storage batteries to power smart cities in Africa.
The initiative is part of a strategic move to meet rising international battery demand as supply struggles to catch up in the short term.
The batteries produced at the plant will also be used to power electric vehicles, bicycles, and for residential and commercial purposes.
Mwale is a principal investor in Mwale Medical and Technology City, a $2-billion community-owned sustainable metropolis with a large medical and technology complex in Butere Sub-County in Kakamega, Kenya.
Mwale recently lost a tender to take control of Mumias Sugar despite placing the highest bid.
He challenged the leasing of Mumias Sugar’s assets to Sarrai Group, claiming that the group is the least qualified to win the leasing rights based on the amount that it offered and its technical capacity.
A Kenyan high court in Kakamega, a town in western Kenya where Mwale’s technology complex is located, issued an order nearly five months ago suspending the Ugandan conglomerate Sarrai Group from proceeding with the revival of the ailing Mumias Sugar Company.
