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Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kiira Motors Corporation new vehicle plant in Jinja is due for commissioning on Monday, further strengthening the growth of the electric mobility industry in Uganda.
The Kiira Vehicle Plant has 65,000 square metres of production spaces has the capacity to produce electric and hybrid buses, trucks and luxury cars, having produced and launched Africa’s first Electric car, the Kiira EV, in October 2011. By then it was still wholly under Makerere University.
The Initial Installed Capacity of the Kiira Vehicle Plant is 2,500 buses per year, with plans to further upgrade it to 5,000 units annually in the medium term.
According to the documents at the mother ministry, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology (STI), the plant is expected to provide 14,000 jobs directly and indirectly.
This year, the government, which holds 96 percent of the company through the Ministry alongside Makerere’s 4% of STI in the Office of the President, provided 32.5 billion shillings to enhance its capacity.
This allocation is part of the 2024/25 financial year budget totaling 257 billion shillings for the STI sector, the other going into other projects like the Banana Industrial Research and Development Centre (PIBID) which has been allocated 49.6 billion.
Government has embarked on the journey of building a USD500 billion economy within 15 years under its tenfold growth strategy. In this journey, technology-led productivity is a necessary condition to reach the double-digit economic growth potential envisaged under NDP4, according to the Treasury official.
The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi said the STI sector was critical for Uganda’s bid to grow 10 times to 500 billion dollars in 15 years, because of the huge market.
“The global STI market presents opportunities worth 51.4 trillion dollas, with the pathogen economy alone valued at 12 trillion, while mobility is at 15 trillion dollars,” he said of the industries that Uganda could ably participate in. “This would also help the country save billions of dollars spent on imports dominated by products that can be made locally. Currently, 77 percent of Uganda’s import expenditure is spent on STI related products. By focusing on developing domestic capabilities in e-mobility and pharmaceuticals, Uganda can retain significant value to strengthen the economy.”
The government, through the Uganda Investment Authority, allocated 100 acres for the establishment of the Kiira Vehicle Plant, located at the Jinja Industrial and Business Park.
But sector Minister Monica Musenero says more needs to be done to ensure they keep ahead of the growing demand, and this requires at least half a trillion shillings.
“We need to have at least 200 busses at any one time that when people come, and as you see, there are different types of busses, because some clients come when they want this particular one, or that particular one,” Musenero told an exhibition event in Jinja recently.
The Jinja plant is due to be commissioned by President Yoweri Museveni.
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