Rwanda’s growing knack of punching above its weight became evident when Volkswagen South Africa recently announced it was rolling out a $20m venture in the country’s capital, Kigali.
This is only the second such plant on the continent – the other being the company’s global group factory in Nigeria – and involves the small-scale assembly of vehicle kits sent to Kigali from the car manufacturer’s plant in Uitenhage.
“Small scale”, however, doesn’t describe the expansive scope and innovative scale of the plant. Ed Richardson, editor of Automotive Industries magazine, explained that the plant would herald integrated mobility solutions for the small country which isn’t only big news for Africa, but all first world countries priding themselves on smart-tech trailblazing. “It’s really about carsharing that will work off your cell phone.
You won’t have to own a car any more, but will own access to the use of one.” In a press release VWSA confirmed that “at the centre of the project are app-based sharing and ride-hailing offerings that take individual mobility to a broader share of the population.” It added that “the project kicks off with community car sharing primarily aimed at companies in the capital,” to be followed by a ridehailing service later this year.
Commenting on its choice of Rwanda as its second plant off-set outside South Africa, VWSA said “Rwanda is the ideal market for new mobility solutions because the people there are very digitally minded and techsavvy.”
It also underscores VWSA CEO Thomas Schaefer’s sentiments when he told a recent Manufacturing Indaba in Sandton that smart-tech solutions could be used to fast-track progress across Africa by connecting countries with investment opportunities elsewhere on the continent and the world.
Business Day has since reported that Schaefer sees Rwanda as a “pillar” for his plan to take vehicle assembly to more countries in Africa. The new plant kicks off with 1000 units annually but has start-up potential of 5000 units.
However, its apex capacity is set at 10 000 cars per year. VWSA general manager of communications, Matt Gennrich, said that the vehicle kits from Uitenhage would be shipped to Mombasa for onward transport to Kigali. It serves to illustrate how different hinterland logistics could have been if the units could have been moved by rail – an issue that was discussed at the recent Africa Rail Expo.
