Our partner company Polybat is building a showroom. And a new grantee will invest in IT training centres.
In 2022, Polybat and the Facility Investing for Employment (IFE) signed a grant agreement. The company has just started the construction of its first showroom for aluminium products. And Fondation Tunisie pour le Développement, our newest partner, will build technology and training centres across the country.
With the support of Invest for Jobs Polybat SA started the construction of its first showroom in Tunis. It will be used to display and sell the aluminium profiles and fittings manufactured by the newly founded company Hedcoo, a subsidiary of Polybat. The ongoing construction boom in North and West Africa is creating an ever-growing demand for building material that can compete with imported products. The Hedcoo products will make the Tunisian building industry less dependent on imports. This will lead to a reduction of costs and to the creation of employment across the sector. Within the framework of Invest for Jobs the Facility Investing for Employment supports the construction measures and the purchase of machinery with a grant of 6.53 million euros.
The start of the construction was welcomed by IFE Managing Director Anke Afflerbach: “I look forward to the opening of the showroom and the workshops, and I am impressed by the speed with which the planning phase has been completed. Clients and installation companies will soon be able to make full use of them. This will create new jobs and training opportunities in the construction sector.”
More information on this partnership can be found on the project page.
The latest IFE grantee in Tunisia is Fondation Tunisie pour le Développement. On 26 July 2023, both parties signed a grant agreement that will help finance the construction and the equipment of three new technology and training centres. The ELIFE Centres will be built in the interior regions of Sidi Bouzid, Tozeur, and Kairouan. Each year, 120 graduates of technical universities will receive additional training in the ICT sector, and 600 people who are already in employment, will acquire new qualifications in areas like renewable energy. The goal is to create jobs for more than 1,200 people – with all the social benefits that come from an employment in the formal economy. The Fondation Tunisie pour le Développement will invest a total of 6.89 million euros. The Facility Investing for Employment granted a subsidy of 4.9 million euros (71 per cent).
© ELIFE // At the signing ceremony
Among the participants of the signing ceremony were Ms. Anke Afflerbach, Managing Director of the Facility Investing for Employment, Mr. Badreddine Ouali, President of the Fondation Tunisie pour le Développement, Mr. Peter Prügel, German Ambassador to Tunisia, and Ms. Beate Richter, Director of the KfW-Office in Tunis.