Egypt’s state-owned Arab Contractors is studying infrastructure projects in Angola, Kenya, Senegal and Ethiopia says the company’s head of the East and West Africa, Ibrahim Mabrouk in a company statement.

It is understood that Cairo is keen for Arab Contractors to take on work in the Africa as it seeks to encourage international contractors to the domestic Egyptian market.

In December 2014, the Egyptian ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idris, announced that local firm Arab Contractors had been awarded a contract to work on the initial implementation of the Ethiopian section of the Cairo to Cape Town road project.

The road in Ethiopia will stretch for about 170 kilometres, and is funded by the African Development Bank. It will run for thousands of kilometres and link Egypt to South Africa.

In a statement, Idris said the move also comes as part of Egyptian efforts to become more involved in projects with an “African dimension”.

Meanwhile international contractors remain concerned with Egypt’s procurement process surrounding local infrastructure projects. An international contractor based in Cairo told MEED “Egypt’s procurement process has broken down with very few infrastructure projects being tendered as government bodies continue to opt for private negotiations.”

Other contractors also voiced their concerns regarding the procurement process claiming that “contract awards based on private negotiations do not set a precedent and result in international contractors losing interest in Egypt as contract awards become increasingly politicised.”