When we usually hear of Uganda, which is more fondly referred to as the “Pearl of Africa”, it has usually been related to politics and political conflicts. However, there is much more to the East African nation and this time around, it’s their motoring ambitions that demonstrate they could soon be setting a new precedent in the continent’s automotive industry and sustainable business landscape.

What began as a student project many years ago, has become Kiira Motors Corporation (KMC). A venture founded in 2014 under the auspices of the Ugandan Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation and Makerere University. It features a shareholder breakdown of 96% belonging to the Office of the President and partnering Makerere University owning 4% At the surface, this seems like an exciting electric vehicle project to contribute to cleaner air quality, produce environmentally friendly vehicles and improve the public transportation system. These goals and the progress made so far are inspiring and respectable considering that with the reported (USD) $50 million investment they’ve received, Kiira Motors has accomplished a lot, including producing the Kiira EV, Africa’s first electric vehicle launched on 24th November 2011. They’ve also produced the Kiira EV Smack, Kiira EVS, Kayoola Diesel Coach, Kayoola Solar Bus and the Kayoola EVS, a completely electric city bus with 90 seater passenger capacity and a range of 300km on a single charge. In addition, they have received positive feedback such as interest in orders and firm orders for vehicles and a brand new multi-functional plant, complete with a waste treatment plant, nearing completion to begin fulfilling said orders.

The other interesting component of Kiira Motors is how it has stretched its application to support the national healthcare system through the production of the Bulamu Medical Ventilator to support high-dependency care delivery. Meaning that overall, Kiira Motors is on its way to doing good on two sets of objectives that it has set. First, the objective to add value to Uganda’s domestic automotive industry by developing, creating and selling motor vehicles, and vehicle components locally and throughout the African market. And second to its objective to provide design, software development, engineering and testing services to the global automotive industry and adjacent industries such as the construction, agriculture, electronics, devices and aerospace industries. Making them a very interesting case to watch as they accelerate plans to complete their plant to go to market.