HIS HIGHNESS The Aga Khan has become a partner in the progress of developing countries of Asia and Africa by initiating the Industrial Promotion Services Group of companies.
The IPS Group as it has come to be known, grew out of a study in the late fifties which materialised in early 1963 as four national IPS companies in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and in Switzerland.
In addition to these four companies, other IPS companies have been established in the Ivory Coast, Zaire, Pakistan and Bangla Desh with one currently in formation in Canada.
IPS was designed and launched as an industrial development company for developing countries. To the business communities in these countries, IPS is now known as a development company in the real sense of the word. Sponsored by private investment, IPS is the financial, technical, management and above all, local power behind numerous successful industries in these developing nations.
IPS Switzerland, which maintains contact with resources in Europe and the Americas, provides the latest information technical know how, research and management assistance to its sister companies. Through IPS Switzerland, each IPS company has access to the combined experience of the entire group.
Industrial development in the IPS sense involves cooperation at many levels - with private entrepreneurs, government development agencies, banks, financial institutions, and large international companies.
The typical IPS company has departments for finance, project development, project supervision and marketing, supported by IPS Switzerland in areas such as financial planning and controls, technical know-how, identification of foreign partners, personnel selection and training and study evaluation.
IPS is flexible in its approach to new projects. It may initiate a project itself and invite others to participate therein. Or it may associate itself with other development corporations in initiating the project.
Individuals and group of investors may come to IPS with an idea or requests for assistance in commissioning a study or launching a project.
IPS then carries out a full feasibility study. Production processes, equipment and other fixed assets are defined; costs of production, administration and sales are realistically estimated; a financial plan is developed and all other pertinent considerations are carefully reviewed.
The resulting report enables the promoters to decide if they should continue, and it is also the basis for an IPS decision whether to become fully involved in the venture.
Thus IPS acts as a promoter, developer, financial partner, co-ordinator, consultant or management resource, tailoring its functions to meet the specific need of each project which it undertakes. In every case, it is committed to make the best possible use of local and international resources while carefully guarding the national interests of the people whom it serves.
IPS brings together international capital and local financial resources, world-wide technology and imaginative human enterprise to create domestic industrial activities, which, for want of combination of these factors, might otherwise not come into existence. IPS has successfully launched, and operates six industrial projects in Kenya and then in Tanzania.
In the property development sector, the IPS Buildings' both in Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam and Kampala are notable landmarks of these cities.
Please use the back arrow to go back to the previous page