Kenyan tech tycoon Julius Mwale meets President Julius Bio to discuss interest in Sierra Leone

Kenyan tech tycoon Julius Mwale met with Sierra Leone President Julius Bio in Freetown, the country’s capital, to discuss a move to expand his business in the region.

Mwale, a successful businessman who built his fortune from the ground up, is the primary investor in Mwale Medical and Technology City (MMTC), a $2 billion community-owned sustainable metropolis with a large medical and technology complex in Butere Sub-County, Kakamega, Kenya.

In a press release announcing the planned expansion into Sierra Leone, MMTC stated that a delegation led by Mwale completed a two-week state investment tour to Sierra Leone to discuss MMTC’s expansion in the country.

MMTC also stated that its team will invest in a new smart city as an extension of its current business, with a focus on agriculture, healthcare, energy, transportation, and manufacturing.

Mwale’s recent meeting with Sierra Leone’s president is the tycoon’s third high-level meeting with African leaders as he seeks to expand his business across Africa through MMTC.

Mwale and his delegation were invited to Sierra Leone after attending President William Ruto’s inauguration on Sept. 13. During the 77th United Nations General Assembly in October, he met Kenya’s president and discussed his desire to expand his business in the country.

In June, Mwale 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.

The plant will be built near the Kenyan businessman’s cobalt and nickel mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It will produce electrical power storage batteries to power Africa’s smart cities.

The initiative is part of a larger strategy to meet rising international battery demand while supply struggles to keep up in the short term. The plant’s batteries will also be used to power electric vehicles, bicycles, and residential and commercial applications.