INSIGHT : New factory on tractors, fire vehicles ‘milestone’

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania will start assembling tractors and fire fighting and rescue vehicles from March next year in a move which will boost agriculture and disaster management.

The factory to produce the vehicles is now under construction in Ruvu, Mlandizi, in Coast Region. The project is undertaken by Equator Suma JKT Limited. Upon completion, it will have the capacity to employ up to 200 people at once. Until now, the construction of the factory on a 10-hectare piece of land has reached 80 per cent.

The firm is jointly owned by a local private company, Equator Automech, and the income generating division of the national service army, Suma-JKT.

Under the partnership, Equator Automech owns 70 per cent of shares and the remaining 30 per cent is in the hands of Suma-JKT. “So far, we have spent Sh1.5 billion, but until completion we will spend Sh2 billion,” the company Managing Director, Mr Robert Ndege, told The Citizen which visited the facility.

According to him, the plant is set to cut down, by at least half, overhead costs for importation of ready-made automotive machines in the two categories.

He said on average the importation of one fire tender cost between Sh500 million and Sh800 million. But producing the same locally will be cut to half.

“With the same amount of money we can produce two fire engines,” he recently.

The factory will also cut the time spent on ordering such machines. Usually, it takes between eight and 10 months for delivering of a single order of fire tender, but the Equator Suma-JKT plant will need a maximum of three months to deliver the same. “We have the annual capacity to assemble 3,000 tractors and 100 fire fighting vehicles. This will be a big relief to majority of Tanzanians, who were unable to import these machines,” he noted.

According to Mr Ndege, the plant will also be repairing damaged fire tenders, hence serving the cost that would have been spent on buying the new ones from manufacturers.

For him, the plan is also meant to reduce the cost that the government and individual Tanzanians incur when importing the machines.

“We appreciate the support by the government as guaranteed by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, when he toured the plant recently,” he said. According to the managing director, they have imported the assembling technology from Russia and India. The raw materials for fire tenders to be assembled will be sourced from ST Auto and URAL companies of Russia.

“Materials for tractors will be imported from Escort Company situated in Poland and India. They are manufacturers of Farm Track Tractors, but we have the capacity to assemble all types of tractors using the same technology,” he explained.

According to him, the assembled outputs will also be exported to other African countries.

“We are going to produce in accordance with the orders we get. We will not produce vehicles and put them in warehouses,” he explained.

He hoped that because the factory was of its kind in the region, they would receive many orders as countries in the region would be interested in cutting the cost of importing such machines.

Where did the idea come from?

Mr Ndege said he came up with the idea after realising the potentiality of investment resulting from the demand of tractors from farmers, who comprise 66 per cent of the total working population. He said his idea was to boost industrial investment in the country.

He decided to merge with the idea of producing fire tenders after Tamco, which used to assemble Scania, failed to do so.

“That is where we approached the Indian firms to see how they could support us through training, for which we managed to enter into an agreement on exchange programmes. Apparently, there is demand of about 20,000 tractors, importing all of them from abroad would involve a lot of money and time,” he said. As regards manufacturing of fire tenders, they will also introduce a new tire manufacturing technology.

“We plan to produce tires, which will be able to run for about 100km after bursting. This will ensure that the fire tender reaches an accident site without delay,” he said.

He noted that because the machines would be assembled locally, they would be able to manufacture vehicles in accordance with customer needs. For instance, we will be able to produce vehicles, which would enable fire fighting in high raise buildings. Currently, we don’t have such vehicles,” he said.

Challenges

Mr Ndege mentioned bureaucracy in public offices as a major challenge that has affected their project. He said it took a long time for them to accomplish registration of the company and start construction.

He suggested the establishment of a coordinating council that would link all major institutions responsible for approving investments applications. The move would reduce time and cost to investors.

“There is a need to improve an investment climate attract more investors,” he insisted.

Speaking when he visited the factory, Mr Majaliwa assured them of full support to ensure prosperity was guaranteed. He cemented on the government’s move to encourage industrial investment, saying it was the only solution that would create employment. According to him, the government is working day and night on creating a sustainable and conducive investment climate that will last longer and attract many investors.

“The government’s commitment to investment goes with the intention to support local investors, we encourage to invest in both light and heavy industries in order that one day, Tanzania will stand alone in development projects,” he said.

He added that commitment to building the industrial economy was in the pipeline and the government was ready to offer support to ensure the objectives bear positive fruits. “As we are going to have this local owned plant, there will be no reason to keep importing fire and tractors from abroad, the government will be purchasing those engines from here,” he explained.

On agriculture, Mr Majaliwa noted that, being able to assemble farm implements, the factory was expected to promote the welfare of the majority Tanzania farmers as they would now be able to buy tractors at a reasonable price and improve productivity.

He was confident that those tractors will improve agriculture sector and adding value to the raw materials to be produced. “From this, investment the shortage of food will be history, as the country is going to be assured of surplus food for many years to come…We should be proud of these efforts,” said the Premier

A report entitled “Investment potential opportunities in agriculture by the ministry of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries” notes that at present, it is estimated that out of the total power potentially available for agricultural operations, only about 10 per cent represent motorised (tractor) power.

Also, some 20 per cent from 20 draft animals and the agricultural labour force contributes some 70 per cent.

The report, which was prepared by the ministry’s private sector development unit, goes further to explain that, the country has 9,500 tractors that are operational and 6,000 others broken down.

Despite its obvious benefits, tractor sales in the country have drastically dropped over the past 20 years mainly due to their high prices that render them out of reach to the majority of farmers.

“Lack of credit, stringent borrowing conditions from commercial banks and low crop prices make tractors unaffordable. This has made most of the small-scale farmers in the country to depend on the hand hoe for cultivation,” reads part of the report. The establishment of the manufacturing and assembling of agricultural machinery and implements in the country for the sake to cut the importation cost and add value to the agriculture products is also among the recommendations of the report.

What the fire fighting department says

The Deputy Commissioner General of Fire Fighting and Rescue Force Lidwino Mgumba is optimistic that the fire machines to be assembled are of the best quality.

He said with effect from next year, they would be purchasing the locally-made rescue machines from the plant as per directives of the Prime Minister Majaliwa during his visit in last week.

“We are satisfied with a sample of the machines that will be produced… Our pledge is to make the best use of it to address the shortage of fire and rescue vehicles in the country,” he said, adding: “The fire rescue force is determined to work together with this local factory as we are the state organ mandated to rescue people and their properties in all hazards that would occur.”

He said, the force had been facing a number of challenges, including a shortage of equipment, but with the plant, which is under the 100 per cent ownership of local entities, the shortages ware likely to be addressed. The deputy commissioner general said the force for a long time had been running a shortage of equipment almost by 40 per cent, but with effect with the commencement of the factory, the shortage would be addressed.

“I have seen the sample of what will be assembled and I am satisfied that the they are set to survive in all situations, their engines last longer hence offering the new hope for Tanzanians,” said Mr Mgumba.