For much of Africa’s post independence history, the continent’s relationship with the automobile has been largely transactional: vehicles designed elsewhere, assembled elsewhere and imported at considerable cost. Paul Isaac Musasizi has spent much of his professional life attempting to change that equation.
As chief executive of Kiira Motors Corporation, Uganda’s state backed automotive manufacturer, Musasizi has become one of the continent’s most recognizable advocates for indigenous industrialization. His ambition is strikingly simple to state, but notoriously difficult to execute: build vehicles in Africa, for Africa.
The story began not in a factory, but in the lecture halls and laboratories of Makerere University. Trained as a mechanical engineer and graduating with first class honours, Musasizi joined the university as a lecturer while nurturing an entrepreneurial streak that saw him co found ARMS Technologies, an engineering and information systems company. Yet it was an ambitious student research project that would define his career.
In the late 2000s, a team of students and faculty at Makerere set out to design an electric vehicle. The initiative culminated in the unveiling of the Kiira EV in 2011, widely described as Africa’s first electric vehicle prototype developed on the continent. What might have remained an academic experiment soon attracted national attention. Uganda’s government and Makerere University subsequently established Kiira Motors Corporation in 2014 to commercialize the technology and lay the foundations for a domestic automotive industry.
Musasizi was appointed to lead the enterprise.
The task before him was formidable. Automotive manufacturing ranks among the world’s most capital intensive industries, dominated by multinational firms with deep supply chains and decades of accumulated expertise. Uganda, by contrast, had no established automotive ecosystem, limited component manufacturing capacity and little industrial history in vehicle production.
Nevertheless, Kiira Motors pressed ahead.
Under Musasizi’s stewardship, the company developed the Kayoola range of buses, including battery electric city buses that are now operating in Uganda and have been demonstrated across East Africa. The company’s manufacturing facility in Jinja, built on a 100 acre site, has an installed capacity of up to 5,000 vehicles annually in its initial phase. The project is expected to create more than 2,000 direct jobs and approximately 12,000 indirect jobs as local supplier networks mature.
For Musasizi, the argument has always extended beyond buses and electric drivetrains. He sees automotive manufacturing as a catalyst for wider industrial development, capable of stimulating metallurgy, electronics, plastics, logistics and skills development across the economy. Uganda currently imports the overwhelming majority of its vehicles, a trade imbalance he believes can only be addressed through domestic production and increased local content.
The commercial road remains challenging. Kiira Motors continues to require substantial investment to scale operations, and the economics of establishing a competitive automotive industry in a relatively small market remain difficult. Yet Musasizi has persisted, arguing that industrial capability cannot emerge without sustained investment and long term policy support.
Whether Kiira Motors ultimately becomes a major automotive manufacturer or a stepping stone towards a broader industrial ecosystem, Musasizi has already secured a place in Africa’s industrial story. Few executives on the continent are attempting something as complex or as consequential: proving that advanced vehicle manufacturing can take root on African soil.
