President Carlos Manuel Vila Nova of Sao Tomé and Príncipe has toured the Kiira Vehicle Plant in Jinja District.

During the visit, Vila Nova revealed that he was delighted to pay a call to the vehicle plant, praising it as an impressive project.

“When we see the implementation of such a project, I know what to do when we go back I know where to start from,” he said, according to a release from State House Entebbe.

The visiting head of State who arrived in Uganda on Thursday on a working visit also thanked President Yoweri Museveni for his unwavering commitment in steering Uganda's development.

“The leadership of my own brother Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is very important in all of this. I want to thank him in the name of my mission and my people for everything he is doing for Uganda and Africa. I also want to thank all of you for what you are doing in the implementation of this project,” he added.

The Kiira Motors Corporation Chief Executive Officer, Paul Isaac Musasizi, warmly welcomed President Vila Nova to the vehicle plant and informed him that the facility was established to champion the development of Uganda's domestic automotive value chain for job and wealth creation through technology transfer, supply chain localization and contract manufacturing.

“This company was born out of the Presidential Initiative for Science, Technology and Innovation at Makerere University which is one of the leading institutions of higher Education in Africa. At this complex we are setting up a vehicle plant on over 100 acres of land and we are working with the National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) which is under the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF). They are doing the construction that is being supervised by a team of engineers, architects, surveyors and other technical people from Makerere University,” Musasizi said.

“Kiira Motors Corporation is really the brainchild of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and its dear to him, he understood that our country to advance in industrialization, one of the aspects we need to work on is making our own vehicles, particularly because when you make a vehicle you open up industrialization in various sectors. They include iron and steel, silk, carpentry, electricals and electronics, textiles, leather, and so many different aspects that come together to make the over 70,000 parts of a vehicle,” he added.

Jinja Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Richard Gulume noted that his office is working together with Kiira Motors to ensure the success of the project. He also encouraged the visiting President to tour Jinja.

Eng. Brian Buhanda, the General Man agerNEC Construction Works & Engineering Ltd said, “Kiira Motors is fully owned by the government, and we conduct our business through different subsidiaries of which one of them is NEC Construction Works and
Engineering.

Kiira Motors Corporation and NEC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the construction of Kiira Vehicle Plant Start-Up Facilities (Phase I) at the Jinja Industrial and Business Park based on the Force Account Mechanism provided for under Section 95(A) of the PPDA Act, 2003 (as amended). This was subsequent to clearance of the MOU by the Solicitor General.

The Kiira Vehicle Plant site was handed over to NEC on 18th January 2019, which commenced work on 11th February 2019.