Eri-Equip: Supplying Machineries to Boost Development Drive

It is a universally accepted fact that human power plays a determinant role in any developmental activity, however, it is also true that without the proper supplementary machinery human power alone cannot achieve speedy development. It is to meet this demand of necessary equipment that Eri-Equip was established following independence and has been acting as a facilitator to date by providing modern machineries as per the demand in different parts of the country. It is a universally accepted fact that human power plays a determinant role in any developmental activity, however, it is also true that without the proper supplementary machinery human power alone cannot achieve speedy development. It is to meet this demand of necessary equipment that Eri-Equip was established following independence and has been acting as a facilitator to date by providing modern machineries as per the demand in different parts of the country.

Before Eri-Equip became an official representative of Caterpillar, foreign companies used to import the needed machines. Nevertheless, since becoming an official representative of Caterpillar in 1996, Eri-Equip began to import new and modern machineries to meet the ever-increasing demand of machinery in the country.

According to Mr. Ashebr Araya, Head of Operational Unit at Eri-equip, the company has been endeavoring to not only in provide the machineries but also to guarantee the sustainability of the machineries by importing the necessary spare parts from the manufacturing factory.

The primary objective of Eri-Equip is to make available the necessary construction machineries and provide technical guidance to local institutions. Moreover, the company has also been engaged in upgrading human resource capacity by giving trainings that go alongside the technological advancement by recruiting local and foreign experts.

“The company had only four employees when it was first established, but there are around 65 workers of which more than 80% are technical experts,” Mr. Ashebr said.

Quality and efficacy of machineries is often measured in terms of production. How productive the machineries have been is evidence to the strength of the imported machines. Reports from the company indicate that the equipments that have been allocated in different corners of the country have so far not sustained any irreversible damages.
Successful accomplishments have also been registered through these machineries. In Gash-Barka region for instance, machineries supplied by Eri-Equip have participated in different infrastructural projects such as the construction of the Gerset dam, roads and others. All in all, the machineries have had great success wherever they were applied.

Importing sophisticated machines without qualified technicians to maintain them could be a problem in itself. Though the equipments have been imported directly from the manufacturing factory, nonetheless, nothing can remain perfect. Since the machineries are constantly upgraded by the manufacturing companies for better efficiency, Eri-Equip also has to continually upgrade its human resources so as to keep up with the new machineries.  “The latest machines we imported in this year are, for instance, are very sophisticated when compared with the previous ones. So we provide trainings to our employees in our training center,” Mr. Ashebr said.

Though previously limited only to importing construction caterpillar machines, Eri-Equip has now began to import tractors, electrical power plants, agricultural machineries, mining equipment, engines for boats, machineries for bridge constructions, as well as for industries. The construction equipments include bulldozers, excavators, graders, and back loaders. 

As regards their future plans, Mr. Ashebr said that the company is planning to import high standard agricultural equipments that could make due contribution in the endeavors of attaining food security. Eri-Equip will also open branch offices in different parts of the country.