By Zurah Nakabugo.
African development Bank has projected that the African market will move from 1.2 million vehicles, in demand annually in 2017, to 10 million vehicles demanded annually by 2030, mainly due to population growth.
“It’s against this background, that we envisage to have a sustainable motor vehicle industry that will produce 500,000 vehicles annually by 2030, here in Uganda. Our intention is to ensure that many of vehicle parts of buses, pick-ups, Sport Utility vehicles (SUVs), tractors and others are made locally here by Ugandan scientists,” the Chief Executive Officer Kiira Motors, Paul Musasizi says.
He says, the doors of the buses which are made out of aluminum, the glasses, the seats which are made from plastics, the batteries and others, can be fabricated here by Ugandan scientists and small medium enterprises without too much investments.
“A motor vehicle industry is an industry of industries since, If you establish it, it can potentially result into 300 factories, manufacturing vehicle parts locally and employing over 100,000 people. We intend to skill our artisans in Katwe to manufacture motor vehicle parts for export since we can’t consume all of them,” Musasizi says.
He says a typical vehicle has 30,000 parts. Some of these parts are grouped into seven areas, such as engine, gear box, chassis, suspension, steering and breaking- systems. Others include heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plus body components like the doors, glass and vehicle control units.
“The experts revealed that, the supply chain of 30,000 vehicle parts, constitutes 85 per cent of the job opportunity in the plant. This means Kiira is going to employ over 4,500 people in Mutai area only, where it’s situated,” Musasizi says.
Musasizi said this over the weekend during president Museveni’s visit, at Kiira Motor vehicle plant site in Jinja, industrial and business park. The plant which is likely to be complete by December 2021, is seated on 100 acres, and it has so far stands at 85 per cent construction by July 2021. It has been constructed by UPDF engineering brigade under National Enterprise Corporation (NEC), Luwero industries. It will be the largest in the East and Central Africa with capacity to produce 22 buses per day and 5,000 a year. Kiira motors has developed two bus platforms, which include kayoola electric bus, with a range of 300km on a single charge and Kayoola diesel coach.
President Museveni says, Uganda still have three biggest mistakes such as squandering its money to Europeans, giving out Ugandan jobs to Japanese to make vehicles and abstaining from the huge wealth World market since it doesn’t sell anything from there.
“Uganda spends over $550 million each year, by importing vehicles from Japan and Europe. All the money we get from selling coffee which is about $500 million, goes back to Europe by importing second hand vehicles yet they cause diseases like Asthma,” he says.
“I support our vehicle plant to make cars from here at cheaper price than importing expensive with the burden of transport costs and forcing our people to buy expensive products in order to pay for high cost of leaving of the Europeans,” Museveni adds, after laying a foundation stone for Kiira motor vehicle plant in Jinja.
“China uses low cost of leaving to become big manufacturers. This is why the products of China are cheaper since their salaries are still low compared to Europeans. We get disadvantage in everything, we don’t use our raw materials, all these are mistakes. I appeal to people to wake up and avoid these mistakes to help our people,” Museveni says.
He saluted UPDF for engaging in construction, since they are cheaper and not looking for profits yet private companies are looking for 20 per cent profit, and also borrow money from the banks at 24 per cent interest rate to construct buildings.
“So from the beginning, within the cost, private companies have like 50 per cent, which has nothing to do with the work but to pay bank interests and interests of private companies. This is why am determined that UPDF construction brigade will continue to do most government work,” he says, while warning UPDF from sub-constructing workers.
Museveni also banned importation of fully built vehicles and once they start making vehicles from here, he will also ban importation of second hand vehicles since they produce poisonous fumes.
“Since we are getting out of sleeping, what is the strategy? No more importation of fully built buses. No more assembling from outside the country? We want all buses to be fabricated here. You bring some parts like Chassis but others are made from here,” he says.
Kampala is ranked fourth in Africa and 15th in the World, with polluted air due to using second hand vehicles and boda-bodas.
Musasizi says 50 per cent of the price of an electric vehicle is in the battery, we are working with Uganda Development Bank and consulting Makerere University to develop capacity and manufacture electric vehicle batteries locally since we have cobalt in Uganda.
“Our intention is to ensure that as far as buses, lorries and trucks are concerned, in 8 years from now, we are making 65 per cent of parts locally made, and that about 19,000 parts made from here,” he says.
Musasizi says, they created over 500 jobs in Mutai area, where the vehicle plant is established and some of the jobs include carpentry, steel venders, fabricators who make windows, concrete and brick makers.
“We found most of those people here growing tomatoes, which wasn’t a bad idea, but they are now working in this industry and their income has improved. The construction of this factory has ploughed back Shs 28bn within a period of 30 months in procuring materials for construction of sand, steel, marrum, hardcore,” he says.
Musasizi estimates that in five years of operation, central government will collect Shs 200bn while local government collects Shs 61bn from this vehicle plant. The plant will start its production of buses byend December 2021, where Kampala alone will need 7,000 buses with a replacement cycle of 8 years.
“We are working to deploy 1, 020 buses made here by June 2022. We are looking in to draw more resources from KACITA and Twagalane to bring money and invest into buses by building bus stops and terminals and also establish road furniture to have them ready by December 2021. We hope to have official launch of Kampala bus system with 300 buses initially by end of next year.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Monica Musenero says, she has learnt that Motor vehicle market is growing steadily with regional vehicle sales, anticipated to reach over 630,000 vehicles annually to East African Community (EAC), and 10 million vehicles annually on the African continent by 2030.
She says, the growing demand for vehicles remain an untapped opportunity for domestic industrialization and used vehicle imports continue dominating the market leading to hemorrhaging foreign exchange of over $450 million annually.
“It’s important to note that road transport accounts for 95 per cent of passenger traffic and 96.5 percent of freight cargo. Uganda has a motorization rate of 14 vehicles per 1,000 persons, below 44 for Africa, and 200 for transport system,” she says.
Musenero says, in the absence of a well-constructed public transport system, 65 per cent of the vehicles on the road, are private passenger vehicles, carrying only 9 per cent of the daily commuters, leading to heavy traffic and road congestion especially in Kampala.
