High fuel imports weakening the shilling

Kampala.

The Ministry of Transport has said the shilling continues to weaken due to high fuel consumption by old vehicles.
Speaking at the launch of the Mobikey Man trucks in Kampala at the weekend, Mr Samson Bagonza, the chief engineer at the Ministry of Works, said old vehicles consume a lot of fuel, which has had dire impact on the economy through encouraging fuel imports that weaken the shilling.
“The biggest percentage of the vehicles in Uganda are very old, and they use a lot of fuel compared to new ones. A lot of foreign exchange then goes into importing fuel,” he said, highlighting that there was need for Uganda to encourage importation of new cars to cut back on fuel consumption.
“A new car can move for more 10 kilometres on one litre of fuel. But with the same amount, an old car moves at most four kilometers,” Mr Bagonza said.
Last week, Man Trucks unveiled new buses and trucks into the Ugandan market that are built on German technology which are ideal for transport, agriculture and construction.
Mr Bagonza, who represented the Works minister, said the truck industry in Uganda is characterised by old cars, which are not only hazardous to the environment but to the economy as well.
Goncalo Vito, the Mobikey general manager, said they want to address the challenges of transportation in Uganda.
“We [have played an important role] in Angola’s mining, transport, construction and agriculture sector and we think we can do the same here,” he said.