TANZANIANS have started to enjoy benefits of industrialisation after seeing the first modern age vehicle assembly plant being established to assemble and sell FAO trucks locally.
Located in Kibaha town in the Coast Region, GF Vehicle Assemblers established by Tanzanians have already assembled more than 60 trucks since August last year, when it ventured into business.
“GF Vehicle Assemblers looks to expand its capacity to assemble up to 200 trucks a month and will be able to create more than 400 jobs for Tanzanians in the near future,” said Ezra Mereng, GF Vehicles Assembler’s General Manager.
Mr Mereng was speaking over the weekend shortly after his company secured certification from the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS).
He added that with the intention of reducing car prices, his company was importing Complete Knock Down (CKD) parts and assembling trucks, which will see the prices going down to attract regional markets.
Mr Mereng said that to reach a target of assembling 200 trucks per month, his company was currently training its local employee who will later provide a workforce and increase production.
According to him, jobs created by GF vehicle assemblers in its mission are those targeting Tanzanians with different qualifications, adding that most of them are vocational education, college and university degree graduates.
Elaborating, he expressed gratitude to the government after his company secured certification from the TBS, which grants them opportunity to export the final assembled cars to the markets of East African community (EAC) and that of Southern African Development Community (SADC).
“We plan to start assembling other types of cars including the saloon cars in the coming future in accordance with the market demand,” he said.
The TBS Director General, Dr. Yusuf Ngenya said granting certificates and licenses to use TBS standard mark will help manufacturers, including GF vehicle assemblers to compete and penetrate in the regional markets particularly in the EAC and SADC.
“With the TBS quality mark, the local produced goods including the assembled vehicles will not be liable for testing standards in the regional markets.