Kiira bus: Driving Uganda to future-ready industrialisation

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OPINION

By Stephen Christian Kaheru

The month of September 2025 ended on a high note for Uganda’s manufacturing narrative with the commissioning of the Kiira Vehicle Plant in Jinja. The state-of-the-art bus manufacturing facility, which will roll out Africa’s first electric vehicle, positions Uganda at the forefront of mobility innovation.

In manufacturing electric vehicles, Kiira Motors unveils our multi-cylinder propeller for catalysing coordinated growth in different sectors. At a global level, Sustainable Development Goal 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, primes us to drum up value-creation through industrialisation as our leading edge for socio-economic transformation.

The structural frame of the buses is to be built from aluminium and other metals, just as demand for leather and foam is certain for the seats. Glass will be required for windows, while the wheel system will be anchored on tyres made out of rubber. Needless to say, components of plastic will take up a significant area of the interior.

A stream of orders is what our local battery maker, Uganda Batteries Limited, requires to avert the supply-chain shocks of importation. Discernibly, in linking frame construction, body mounting, interior fittings, painting to local resources, we can stimulate a domestic supply chain for the required raw materials.

Shatterprufe in South Africa curved a niche from manufacturing automotive glass from domestic plants, which churn out over 1.2 million windscreens and 2.5 million toughened glass parts annually.

On the capabilities front, Kiira’s annual capacity of 2,500 buses and 11 per day warrants a solid skills base to steer our manufacturing drive. Besides welders, now is the time to nurture an indigenous workforce of automotive technicians in fields including mechatronics, electronics and mechanics relevant to electric vehicle production.

In 2021, Hyundai Motor Company, in collaboration with tertiary institutions, established the world’s 7^th Hyundai Dream Centre in Athi River in Kenya to provide training in automotive technology for electric vehicles. This facility broadened access to highly sought-after automotive skills for Kenya’s hands-on youth.

Morocco found a silver bullet in developing port-linked infrastructure to boost exports, which lured global auto players, Renault and Volkswagen. Through phased investment, the National Automotive Industry Development Plan in Nigeria developed local capabilities alongside negotiating international partnerships.

Accordingly, it has its eyes set on a 70 percent local content target by 2030 through global collaboration. Egypt found its industrial bearing in manufacturing vehicle parts within dedicated production clusters, which ended importation, while Ghana’s thrust on strategic business alliances demonstrated that emerging markets can thrive from partnering with global players.

On the southern tip of the continent, South Africa’s Automotive Production and Development Programme prioritised exports, generating over 100,000 jobs and raising the industry’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product to 7 percent. With a sizeable domestic demand, the 70 percent local component integration in vehicle production remains an expansionary economic impulse for native suppliers.

Aiming for carbon-neutrality by 2050, Rwanda is smoothing the adoption of electric vehicles through local production. With the allure of fiscal stimulants and infrastructural incentives, the Rwandan government attracted German auto giant Volkswagen to set up an electric vehicle assembly plant in 2019, along with industrial automation multinational Siemens, which invested in the requisite charging infrastructure.

Scorned as one of Africa’s least motorised countries with just 6.7 vehicles per 1,000 people in 2016, way below the continental average of 72.7, Ethiopia has laid a solid foundation for domestic electric vehicle manufacturing. Through a strategic investment in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, one of Africa’s largest hydropower plants, Ethiopia is raising demand for power through electric vehicles. 

Where is the central strand in all these countries’ strategies? Domestic supply chain stability, infrastructural fillips and leveraging cross-border trading agreements are pivot points in driving Africa’s manufacturing impetus.   

A Kayoola Electric Bus, once a far-off dream as Uganda’s Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation confessed, now stands tall as a life-size materialisation of a resolute national leap.

Therefore, overcoming systemic hurdles to magnify Kiira’s potential to spur industrial growth is what the economy now needs to tip the balance towards a native African testimony on innovation-led manufacturing. How then can we unlock systemic barriers to provide the spark that ignites locally-driven industrial progression? Unravelling this question is the relentless task that must pre-occupy our policy architects and technical experts.

Uganda’s innovative manufacturing sets the rhythm for Africa’s future-ready industries. To paraphrase His Late Highness Aga Khan IV, unless these plugs are galvanised by the spark which ignites the impetus for full utilisation of capacity, our pursuit for sustainable industrialisation will come to nought. It is for us, whose eyes sparkle with optimism for the future, to provide that spark. When all is said and done, the value of addition is the modern currency to competitively engage with buyers in a globalised marketplace.

The writer comments on national and regional development issues. skaheru@hotmail.com