Over 80,000 number plates have been airlifted into Uganda to mitigate the current plates crisis.
Alongside Arnold Brooklyn Company (ABC), last evening thousands arrived at the airport so that production could begin.
According to Elvis Ssekyanzi Wavamunno, the Executive Director, GM Tumpeco, the shortage was as a result of being awarded short term contracts by government ahead of the anticipated rollout of digital number plates.
“Originally we have been doing this for 24 years seamless and when the contract was handed to the new manufacturer that we are still waiting for to come or to supply, we were then given short- term which means that the supply chain stopped and we keep switching it on and off and we just to reiterate we have no control over that,” says Ssenkyanzi.
With dozens of cars and motorcycles stuck in bonded warehouses as a result of the shortage, government moved to quickly contract GM Tumpeco Ltd to come to the rescue.
This week a crisis meeting was held at the MoWT headquarters, which included representatives from the ministry, vehicle importers, dealers, and the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and resolved to address the pressing issue of unregistered vehicles in the country to have GM Tumpeco fly in the number plates.
“In terms of number plates, we work on short term contracts of 3 -4 months and with them we have challenges with the supply chain and sometimes manufacturers cannot deliver on time.
“You need a minimum of 4 months’ notice to get production and another 2 months for delivery by water but in this case where we need them urgently, we air lifted them in order to fix the backlog”
For purposes of the future, we appeal to authorities to issue longer contracts to avoid such anomalies from happening again as we look forward to a seamless supply.
The same concerns have been echoed by Jyoti Puri, General Manager of ABC Limited, with a call to authorities to be consistent in their request for the plates, with a pledge to supply Uganda without any disruption.