One of the cars manufactured by Kiira Motors
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Monica Musenero has blamed the failure by Kiira Motors MV to showcase the electric cars manufactured in Uganda at the ongoing Dubai Expo to lack of funds.
Minister Musenero made the remarks while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Science and Technology, in response to a question asked by Joel Leku (Terego West) who tasked the Minister to explain why the electric cars weren’t part of the items showcased at the international expo in United Arab Emirates.
Leku asked, “As a country, we are moving towards the production of electric vehicles, that means we don’t have markets here we are looking for markets for our vehicle. The Dubai expo is ongoing, have we taken Kiira to be marketed in Dubai to the world?”
Minister Musenero revealed Kira motors aren’t being showcased in Dubai physically but rather virtually because the Ministry of Science and Technology had no funds.
She explained, “The Dubai Expo has been ongoing, the President went to launch, but as Science and Technology, we are planning for six months because we didn’t have money, we didn’t participate in the launch when the President visited, but definitely, we are going to participate and one of the big adverts there is Kiira Motors.”
“Our beautiful buses are among the one being showcased and we hope to increase content of our innovations over the next six months, so we definitely will be there,” added Minister Musenero.
The Minister’s revelation comes at the time public was thrown into uproar after photos emerged on social media that Uganda had invested over Shs5Bn in the Dubai expo, OF WHICH Shs3Bn was spent on securing and decorating the pavilion, but some of the items showcased included powdered Lato milk and tea leave.
During the meeting, Albert Akovuku, Director Production at Kira Motors Corporation said the company is in need of an additional Shs77Bn for the construction of plant start up facility.
Akovuku also called for revision of the education curriculum, saying at the moment, students are only taught vehicle maintenance, with no education training in vehicle manufacture.
He said, “We need to establish an automotive industry skilling program and specialized curriculum within higher institutions of learning. The training is basically maintenance and repair, but not the technology of vehicle manufacture.”
Kiira Motors Corporation also revealed that cars to be manufactured will have rechargeable battery capacity to ride up to 300Kilometers and there will be stopover points for motorists to charge their batteries, which takes about 30 minutes to recharge before proceedings with the journey.
However, Polycarp Ogwari (Agule County) wondered why the electric cars aren’t coming with spare batteries instead of spending time on recharging the batteries.
“You have told us it goes for 300Km per charge what is the plan about it? I have driven and I am still continuing, are you going to introduce charging stations? And if the stations are there, how long will I stay there or we shall have spare batteries so that if this one is off, I get another one,” asked Ogwari.
Prof. Tichodri Togboa said there will be battery charging infrastructure and during that half hour, the motorists can make a stopover to charge as they relax for huge cars like buses while small cars will have rechargeable batteries.
They would have borrowed funds.