East Africa Medical Vitals (EAMV), a regional medical supplies solution, has established a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Uganda.
The manufacturer says the fact that public health facilities typically face shortages in medical supplies especially gloves inspired it to start production of the medical supplies.
EAMV is a creation by three companies, Legacy Group, Asigma Capital and Vvsaol Investments Limited who decided to fill this gap to manufacture the formerly imported quality consumables locally.
EAMV is initially starting with Surgical Gloves and Examination gloves, and will subsequently add syringes, catheters and condoms to the portfolio.
While commissioning the plant at the beginning of this month in the Kampala Industrial Business Park in Namanve, Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng she said: “…not only to support the health sector but also to ensure that we don’t keep on sending our dollars out to build other countries; we manage to remain here and develop Uganda starting with our own money but also attracting money from other countries in to Uganda. What I am looking forward is the excess because we must capture the outside market.”
The Health Ministry PS Dr. Diana Atwine said: “It is high time we developed capacity and support our country. It became very clear at the time of Covid when we didn’t have capacity and were depending on outside supplies, it was a big challenge.”
On his part, Brian Kavuya, Managing Director of EAMV said:
“This is the only surgical gloves factory in Africa and one of two or three examination gloves factories in Africa.
We have 12.7 million to date in a mix of debt and equity; we employ 200 Uganda, which will increase to 258 by the end of this financial year and our capacity is 12000 pieces of gloves per hour.”
Ugandan enterprises urged to explore regional oil and gas opportunitiesOn the competition from outside market giants, Kavuya said: “I hope the government addresses this in getting affordable financing to help us be more competitive in the international market. As has been done for our Ugandan manufacturers of drugs, we request that NDA verification fees for imported surgical and are increased from 2% to 12%.”
The company is expected to sink about US$3 million in the second production line to double the production capacity by July 2022 to produce syringes, catheters and condoms, among other products.
The manufacturer believes that local production and affordable pricing will result in increased access to medical supplies, thereby improving health outcomes.
“Local production is a key strategy for sustained access to quality-assured medicines, medical devices and consumables,” the manufacturer says.
EAMV has the capacity to readily supply the East Africa and COMESA markets with high-quality, affordable medical consumables.
Environment friendly
EAMV states that it is an eco-friendly company that is determined to limit our carbon footprint on the planet by using and constantly integrating environment friendly technology and managing disposal systems to the highest technical standards.
“Our production water discharge complies with the rigorous NEMA (National Environment Management Authority) standards,” the company says.
