By Moses Sserwanga
President Yoweri Museveni has
intensified efforts to mobilise international investments for Uganda’s
nascent automotive industry especially now that the world is swiftly switching
to electric mobility to among others - mitigate the widespread effects of
climate change.
Luckily for Africa , several
countries on the continent have
mobilized resources to keep pace with
the advanced global north – by deploying their home grown E- mobility
technologies to ensure the mass production of - clean energy-efficient electric
vehicles and phase out the internal - combustion engine (ICE) cars by the year
2030.
Uganda
with its automotive flagship -Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC), South Africa,
Morocco, Nigeria and Mauritius are among Africa’s early leaders in the EV
market projected
to have 145 million electric vehicles on
the road by the end of this decade.
This is a vey encouraging effort for a continent that is hugely endowed with mineral resources but
which has lagged behind in almost everything that is produced and consumed by
the world’s population of 7.9bn people .
Uganda, together with other EAC regional governments,
should seize the opportunity in 2023 to pronounce themselves clearly-with well articulated road maps and policy documents on greening our cities by promoting clean and
efficient e-mobility solutions. Kampala and many other African cities are
ranked among the most polluted in the world due to the dumping of end-of-life
secondhand used vehicles.
Why Uganda
urgently needs National Automotive Industry Policy
It’s now an open secret that Uganda’s automotive
industry with automakers Kiira Motors Corporation in the lead -is emerging with
the potential to contribute towards economic and social transformation of the
country. This is evidenced by the growing regional motor vehicle market
anticipated to reach sales of over 630,000 vehicles annually by 2030.
Coupled with government ‘s industrialization agenda –as
a top priority to transform Uganda into a middle-income economy through
innovation, utilisation of local raw materials, import substitution and
export-oriented production there is an urgent need for government to put in
place a robust automotive industry development policy to guide the nascent
sector .
Global experiences have shown that government
industrialization policies coupled with demand and skilled workforce play a
leading role in the success of the motor vehicle industry.
Streamlined skilling and upskilling of the youth coupled
with opening domestic and regional markets to guarantee demand is key to
deepening value addition, and supporting the mineral-led industrialization
agenda for import substitution and export promotion.
It can be argued therefore, that a healthy and
sustainable domestic automotive industry is underpinned by the
development of an elaborate ,practical automotive policy to boost the industry for
regional and global competitiveness.
The Automotive Industry Policy will provide the
necessary instruments for promoting the nascent industry with multi-sectoral
linkages placing emphasis on deepening automotive value addition to engender
supply chain localization, import substitution and ultimately export promotion
in the short, medium and long term.
Among the key potential linkages can include energy – clean energy access for
mobility (charging infrastructure –the Ministry of Energy should take note ) ;
agriculture - fiber from banana stems, bamboo, leather and textiles for
automotive interior parts and upholstery; minerals – automotive steel, silica –
sheet glass for automotive, cobalt for batteries; ICT – digital mobility
solutions such as ticketing and revenue management, Transport – providing
sustainable solutions and eco buses for transport in cities to mention but a
few.
This policy should also address other critical areas
in the mobility eco-system to ensure an
enabling environment to spur innovation and value addition across the
automotive industry value chain and enhance automotive standards.
A clearly thought through
National Automotive Industry Policy should be the guiding government blueprint –for
specific policy actions. It should offer policy makers, government, and private
sector actors and or operators- a coherent direction for coordinated investment
and implementation of the policy. This
will go a long away to avoid duplication and overlaps like it is in other
sectors . It will also be the door –step for investors to understand the
available opportunities and how they be harnessed without being bogged down in
the wanton government red tape –which in most cases breeds corruption.
Finally , the National Automotive Industry Policy should offer a certain degree of protection
to the already established industry
players like Kiira Motors and other start-ups- Zembo, Safe Boad , International
University of East Africa (IUEA) and Bodawerk among others -that have worked
against all odds to bring the electric-car revolution to the streets of Kampala
with the production of electric-vehicle fleets and motorcycles.
Government should in the year 2023 put in place a National Automotive Policy and
other attendant laws to ensure proper coordination in the development of the
nascent industry.
The writer is a
media and communications consultant and advocate of the High Court of Uganda
