One of Uganda’s leading tile makers, Modern Tiles, has set up a state-of-the-art showroom in Kampala, the capital city.
Modern Tiles is one of three local tile producers, the other two being Goodwill and Millennium. The three have invested in a sector hitherto dominated by importers. Collectively, the three producers have significantly reduced the prices of tiles on the Ugandan market.
According to Ashish Monpara, the Chairman of Modern Group of Companies which owns Modern Tiles, the showroom is to offer their customers a range of tile products from which to choose.
Monpara said Modern Tiles has a market share of about 58 percent, suggesting most tiles on the market are locally made. The factory sources 90 percent of its raw materials locally and, hence is heavily involved in value addition to locally produced raw materials.
The factory currently produces 49,0000 square metres of tiles per day, with the capacity planned to triple to 150,000 square metres per day at full capacity.
The factory, which started operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, has so far invested 30 million dollars and employs over 3,000 Ugandans directly and indirectly.
A box of tiles goes for about 25,000 shillings (6 dollars 50 cents), a big drop from the high prices of tiles a few years ago.
Monpara applauds the Government of Uganda for creating an enabling environment for investors, both domestic and foreign, to thrive, noting that “Uganda is the best investment destination in the whole of East Africa”.
Modern Group of Companies, in addition to Modern Tiles, owns nine other factories in Uganda. These include factories for hand sanitizers, cooking gas, aluminum products, sugar (Kidera and Kalira), alcoholic drinks, and power, amongst others.
While opening the showroom, the State Minister of Finance (Privatisation and Investment), Evelyn Anite, said: “We started with one tile factory in this country and today we are talking about three different tile factories. The most exciting thing about Modern Tiles is that they started manufacturing during the Covid-19 period and within six months the factory was up and running”.
Anite further implored Ugandans to promote the Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) policy by buying tiles locally from three different companies.
Minister Anite said the local production of tiles is saving Uganda a lot of money in foreign exchange through import substitution. She appealed to Ugandans to support the local tile manufacturers in the true spirit of the “Buy Uganda, Build Uganda” economic policy.
In addition, Minister Anite said the tile factories have created thousands of direct and indirect jobs for Uganda and increased government revenues through taxes.
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