L R AS Published on Thursday 5 September 2019 - n° 288 - Categories:French companies, Africa
Engie acquires Mobisol in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda
Engie acquires Mobisol, the specialist in off-grid systems in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda. This company had been in receivership since April 2019.
Engie is already present in six African countries
through Fenix International (Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Mozambique) since its takeover in 2017 and has developed its own Engie PowerCorner business in Tanzania and Zambia
PV Magazine of 4 September
Editor's note It is easy to understand the interest of Engie's deployment in Africa: it means taking a place in the electrical emergence of a continent. This acquisition can be explained. On the other hand, the bankruptcy of Mobisol can be explained by the difficulty of managing economic activities in a totally different universe: Economic relations are first and foremost human relations based on a hierarchy unknown to Westerners, where customs oblige whoever has something, even if it doesn't belong to him, to share it with the family in the broadest sense: uncles, cousins or village inhabitants. Moreover, Westerners are all considered rich in Muslim countries, stealing from a white man is not stealing! Going to trade under these conditions is very difficult. Very few French companies established in Africa have lived a long time.