The National Bonded Warehouse, Magerwa, will officially be handed over to Portek International today after the Singaporean firm acquired 66.25 per cent shares in the parastatal, promising to invest US$10m to expand its supply chain in the region.

 An extra ordinary general assembly will convene to dissolve the old board and management while in the second session; the old board chairman will handover to the incoming one.

Magerwa’s Managing Director Lambert Nyoni, said he does not expect any job looses as a result of the change of ownership but rather optimisation of human resources.

"If only the changes are likely to be there, its re-positioning and not clean up. May be at the managerial level,” he said.

Portek is expected to upgrade the handling and warehousing industry, diversify and add value to Magerwa’s business as well as the company’s improve revenue trend that was miserably dropping.

"I’m optimistic that with the new management, it’s the new beginning with improved service delivery and business and a changed mindset to shift from public to private company,” he added.

The company bought 6.25 percent of government stake in Magerwa as well as 53 and 6.25 percent owned by Rwanda Development Bank (BRD) and Rwanda Commercial Bank (BCR) respectively.

Magerwa enjoyed monopoly in the handling and warehousing industry until 2005 following the entry of French logistics company, SDV TRANSAMI.

Ends