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When Kenya, Uganda build tractors for SADC, COMESA and Tanzania fold up factories
2007-04-20 08:33:24
By Mwondoshah Mfanga
Kenya and Uganda are out to build tractor manufacturing factories in their countries.
Newspaper reports indicate that while Uganda has already secured assistance from China, which is currently building a tractor manufacturing plant outside the capital city, Kampala, Kenya is currently searching for a tractor manufacturing partner.
According to newspaper reports, both countries are targeting the growing regional markets in Africa -- Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC).
Kenya is shopping for an established tractor maker to partner it in the venture that will yield the first locally manufactured heavy duty tractors by the end of the year, according to the report.
It is said this could be a big step toward industrialisation in line with the country`s Vision 2030 which seeks to make it an economic powerhouse, with manufacturing as its main pillar.
To do that, Kenya is positioning the idle multi-million shilling Numeric Machining Complex (NMC) plant based at its Railways Central Workshop in Nairobi to make tractors for local use and for export.
The Kenyan Ministry of Trade and Industry last week held a workshop with industrial giants East Africa Breweries, Coca Cola, Magadi Soda and others to map out strategies for strengthening the Numeric Machining Complex.
If revived, Kenya could be one of the first countries in East and Central Africa to manufacture tractors for farm use and for transporting sugarcane.
Speculation has it that a conglomerate from India was lined up to take the plant into its next most ambitious ventures, the report says.
Numeric Machining Complex (NMC) was started as a car project in the 1980s by former President Daniel arap Moi, but due to lack of funds to install engine moulding facilities, the Nyayo Pioneer Car initiative was not moved to the industrialisation phase to manufacture cars for local use and for export.
NMC is under tripartite ownership of the Kenya Railways, the University of Nairobi and the government, which owns minority shares.
The plant currently manufactures spare parts for Peugeot 404 cars commonly used as taxis.
The stories about tractor factory construction in Kenya and Uganda reminds some of us about tractor assembly plants in Tanzania and the building of many other related industries in the sixties, seventies and eighties.
Back in the sixties, when some of us were in primary school, agricultural experts from Carmatec based in Arusha used to visit schools where they displayed farming equipment including ploughs, made shift harrows so that the moment the pupils finished schooling they turned to be good farmers.
Today it is not known whether Carmatec is still moving with this programme of yester years.
For if it was, one would think of the farming entity, probably producing combined harvesters, given the experience gained over the years.
The story of manufacturing farming equipment in Tanzania does not end there.
Again during the seventies the government lured China to build another farm implements producing factory, Ubungo Farm Implements (KIZAKU).
The factory was producing all sorts of farm implements ranging from bush knives to ploughs -- which were largely for local consumption, but there were some for export to nearby countries of Kenya, Uganda, Zaire (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Zambia.
What was going on was not merely an act of singing songs on agricultural improvement.
Tanzania had gone to the extent of assembling tractors.
Trama Valmet -- whose factory was built along Pugu Road --used to assemble tractors mainly for local farmers.
With the assistance of the Finnish government, Tanzania was importing tractor parts from the Scandinavian country and while here they were put together, the outcome of which was tractors.
When Valmet combined its assembling activities with the car assembling Saab Scania they moved to Kibaha.
It is surprising today to learn that tractor assembling is no more and even Scania car assembling that used to be done here is done in South Africa after Brazil bought shares from Scania-Sweden to produce vehicles` parts.
Today, Tanzanians buy Scania cars from either South Africa or directly from Sweden and they do not even import tractors. This is a sad story which shows our failure in being good geo-economic strategists.
If Tanzania was to move with the industrialisation vision and speed of the yester years, today it would have probably been a regional economic hub equally or more developed than South Africa.
Not only tractors, Tanzania used to assemble Opel cars in the sixties and seventies, but only at some point production came to be banished and Tanzanians missed the jobs.
At the moment, all cars, just as tractors are imported, mostly being second hand.
There is the Nyumbu project, which is going on in the country.
If the government would have been keen enough, this project, plus that on mechanical equipment production at Mang`ula, Moshi Machine Tools and iron mining in Liganga, could form the base for, not only car production, but also for tractor making for Africa.
However, undertaking such serious and multi-billion projects requires serious investment minds and a lot of great sacrifices.
If Tanzanians are going to continue dilly dallying in taking up these open chances, time will come when they will be surprised by Ugandans, Kenyans or even Burundians -- who have no iron -- becoming manufacturers of tractors and cars for SADC or COMESA markets while they (Tanzanians) remain mere producers and suppliers of iron and many other minerals to them.
It is true Tanzania made very serious mistakes in the course of undertaking some Ujamaa policies and in the liberation efforts of some African countries from colonialism and minority regimes.
While in the former there was a clear strategy, the government went into implementation without a clear plan.
In the latter, Tanzanians entrenched itself into Africa`s liberation struggle without a clear strategy as to how it would come to cooperate with the liberated countries economically.
The same mistake is still being perpetuated todate.
While South Africa, for example, was creating a number of off-shore companies to start and undertake businesses with independent African countries after apartheid, Tanzania has not seriously thought of how it should cooperate with post apartheid South Africa, beside the SADC framework.
What about the other liberated countries? What about the nine landlocked countries which share borders with Tanzania?
Is there an economic plan of action to cooperate with them besides the use of the ports?
If Tanzania finds it difficult now to embark on such serious regional strategic projects, time will come for it to learn from its neighbours the hard way, which might also be bitter.
Lest we forget; when Ugandans and Kenyans are building tractor factories for COMESA and SADC markets, is Tanzania pondering to build even a pin making factory for East Africa?
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