By Kabuye Ronald
President Kaguta Museveni has welcomed Uganda’s fuel efficient car maker, Automobile Group Uganda Company limited, into the country.
In a closed-session meeting held at State House in Nakasero, Gen Museveni lauded the Chinese administrators for their investment which has not only created employment opportunities to Ugandans but also offer cost and fuel efficient vehicles to counter demand on the East African Community market.
The meeting was also attended by the Minister of State for Finance in charge of Privatization and Investment Evelyn Anite.
Gen Museveni’s meetings comes less than a fortnight after minister Anite visited the company at Namanve Industrial park.
In her remarks then, Minister Anite said: “Besides providing jobs for our people, this will also go a long way in helping our country in reducing on the high volume in very old and yet expensive imported cars in Uganda. And you find that most of such cars are emit gasses which are a big threat to our environment.”
Additionally, company will among others save the Ugandans from incurring heavy costs on importing second hand cars in a shipping process characterized with a fleet of untold risks, hefty taxes and yet some of the cars purchased don’t suit the Ugandan terrain.
In his message, the Head of State also credited the company for creating a mechanism that will not only absorb Ugandans as a means of providing labour but also serve as a training ground that will embrace Ugandan students.
On Sunday last week during the just concluded Buy Uganda, Build Uganda (BUBU) expo held at the Kololo Independence grounds in Kampala, the Assistant Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Antony Liu revealed the company will have an all-inclusive internship policy that will embrace students from both vocational institutes and Universities in the fields of computer science, engineering, robotics among others.
“We trust that once we train as many Ugandans as possible then, the same labour force can be embraced and applied in local companies like the Kira Motor vehicles,” Mr Liu said then.
Automobile Group Uganda Company Limited currently imports most of the spare parts from overseas for the first line of production. It however has plans to equipping native workers to learn and apply the same knowledge skills that can later be applied on producing spare parts for same within the country.
Among the major products made by the company is the Vigus 5 4WD pick-ups both the single and double cabin versions. These come with one of the lowest fuel consumptions whereby with 8 litres, one is able to cover at least 100KM.
The truck is gutted with Disc brake with ABS + EBD. Manual transmission 5 forward + one reverse. It has a sitting capacity of 5 persons within the double cab with an extended trunk for one’s extra goods or commodities.
All the cars manufactured under the plant are installed purify air quality. Specifically purify harmful gases, remove odors, reduce odors, reduce bacterial growth and also ensure that the car’s interior had a constant supply of fresh air.
Having the studied the Ugandan market and established that some of fuel station have adulterated fuel, the makers of the said car have filters that incase a driver unclean fuel, the dirt and water and filtered before releasing clean fuel into the engine for combustion.
