TransAfrica Motor’s managing director Ali Zubedi and Equity Bank commercial director Kagiso Moloi sign an asset financing MoU on Friday in Mombasa / BRIAN OTIENO
Equity Bank’s Beatrice Nyambura, TransAfrica Motor’s Ali Zubedi, Equity Bank’s Kagiso Moloi and TransAfrica Motor’s Faiz Awadh in Mombasa on Friday / BRIAN OTIENO
Mombasa-based vehicle assembler and
distributor TransAfrica Motors will open a new state-of-the-art service plant in Mlolongo, Machakos county.
TransAfrica Motors, the sole authorised dealer of
FAW trucks in Kenya established its first assembly plant in 2014 in Jomvu, Mombasa.
The company has grown from two
branches, assembling and distributing 200 units to over 15 branches,
assembling and distributing 3,000 units biannually.
With increased demand for new locally assembled vehicles, the company has explored new avenues to increase production, and vehicle servicing.
TransAfrica Motors general manager Faiz Awadh on
Friday said the workshop facility will employ over 400 people.
“It will be the only one of its kind in East and
Central Africa. It will be working 24 hours and it will have an in and out
service for the trucks that are covering that corridor going all the way to Malaba
and Uganda,” Awadh said.
He spoke during the signing ceremony of a Memorandum
of Understanding between TransAfrica Motors, Global Motors Centre and Equity
Bank in Mombasa.
The partnership introduces a financial solution offering
95 per cent financing with a 72-month repayment plan for clients purchasing new
FAW trucks and a 100 per cent financing for clients purchasing new Jetour SUVs.
TransAfrica Motors’ sister company Global Motors
Centre are the dealers of Chinese Jetour SUVs in Kenya.
Awadh said the new facility will operate with
state-of-the-art efficiency, with trucks expected to be serviced
within an hour, both for major and minor services.
“The plant is intended to have a capacity to service up to
300 trucks at a go,” Awadh said.
Predominantly, the new plant will target the FAW fleet
but will with time expand to other brands.
TransAfrica Motors financial controller Yusuf Noorani
said investing in zero-mileage vehicles make more business sense than investing
in used vehicles.
Apart from providing more comfort and durability, zero-mileage vehicles come with more benefits including access to bank
financing.
“Banks will always finance zero-mileage vehicles
more easily than used ones. This is because there is a longer warranty, after-sales service and other benefits as opposed to second-hand and the reconditioned
units,” Noorani said.
“It is very important to increase local employment
by building and assembling new units for both passenger and heavy commercial
vehicles in our country,” he said.
Equity Bank head of asset finance Beatrice
Nyambura said the expansion of infrastructure in the country by the government,
including the road network, has seen demand for vehicles increase.
“We believe that production has
to be assisted by assets that are reliable and durable. Every truck on the road,
every delivery vehicle servicing customers and every growing fleet supports
jobs, trade and productivity,” Nyambura said.
She said transport and logistics are the
backbone of Kenya’s economy as they connect farmers to the markets,
manufacturers to the customers, ports to inland economies, and Kenya to the
wider region.
“The Africa Continental Free Trade Area is creating opportunities and a vast continental market. Through Equity’s African Recovery and Resilience Plan, we are supporting businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, trade, logistics and other key sectors to build stronger value chains and expand across the borders.”
She said Kenya is positioning herself at the centre
of this growth.
The Lamu port and the corridors are opening up to
the trade routes and into the Northern Kenya, Ethiopia and Southern Sudan.
She said the expansion of the Jomo Kenyatta International
Airport will strengthen Nairobi’s role as an aviation and cargo hub.
The Rironi-Mau Summit highway and the planned
expansion from Mau Summit through Eldoret to Malaba will reinforce the Northern
Corridor to Uganda, Rwanda, Eastern DRC and Burundi.
She said, together with investments in roads,
railways, ports, bypasses, industrial parks and Special Economic Zones, and the
energy infrastructure, these projects point towards more trade, more production
and more movement of people and good.
“They also point towards an ever-growing and
demanding transport and logistics economy. Infrastructure creates the
opportunity; businesses need the assets to cease it.
“That is why we are delighted to partner with
TransAfrica Motors to give our customers access to FAW trucks and the Jetour passenger
vehicles through affordable and flexible financing,” Nyambura said.
She said financial barriers that prevent
businesses from growing must be removed.
“We want entrepreneurs to focus on winning contracts, opening new routes, increasing deliveries and reaching new markets, not raising the full purchase price of a vehicle,” she said.
INSTANT ANALYSIS:
Demand for new (zero mileage) vehicles in Kenya surged by 23 per cent in the first half of 2026 to a record 7,819 units. This surge is primarily driven by lower lending rates, a stable shilling and robust business activity. TransAfrica Motors’ sister company Global Motors Centre started assembling the Jetour vehicles, including the X70 and the Dashing models, last year.
