Uganda could be the latest entrant on the list of countries in East Africa due to start assembling of new vehicles by June 2022, with an initial production capacity of 5,000 units per year. This is according to a top official of the state-owned Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC).
Already other East African nations among them Rwanda and Kenya are at various stages of developing domestic auto industries to meet growing demand for new vehicles.
Last year German carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) launched Rwanda’s first locally assembled car at its new factory in Kigali, with Europe’s biggest carmaker hoping to tap into an expected expansion in demand for ride-sharing in the region.
KMC Chief Executive Officer Paul Isaac Musasizi said in an interview that the firm started construction early this year of the first phase of its production plant in Jinja, eastern Uganda.
” The plan is to have the initial phase completed and commissioned by end of June 2022, we should be in the market with our product by then,” he said.
The Ugandan government has provided $40 million to fund the firm’s operations up to June 2022 beyond which KMC plans to sell stakes to private equity investors to raise extra funds to finance further expansion.
KMC will start with production of buses of various sizes to meet the demand for passenger transportation. Eventually, the firm hopes to expand to manufacturing trucks.
