Christopher Saazi, the Executive Director of Nile Fishing Company that partners with Yamaha Motor Company says that the new bikes are cost-effective to manage as one uses only a litre of fuel to run for 85 kilometers while a litre of engine oil covers 4,000 kilometers.
The Vice President, Jessica Alupo has handed over 140
motorcycles to the sub county chairpersons in Teso sub-region.
The Yamaha XTZ 125E model motorcycles worth over two billion shillings
were delivered by the Nile Fishing Company on behalf of Yamaha Motor Company. They
were delivered on Tuesday to Soroti district headquarters following the
presidential pledge of 2009.
President Yoweri Museveni in 2009 pledged 2,000 motorcycles
for chairpersons of town councils, sub-counties and municipal divisions but the
implementation was marred by the alleged irregularities in the procurement
process in 2020. The procurement that was reported to have been discriminative
against the local companies was halted by Parliament in May, 2020.
It was however resolved, leading to the procurement of more
than 2,100 bikes at 17 billion shillings from Yamaha Motor Company. While other
sub-regions like Acholi, Lango and West- Nile received theirs in April, the
long wait from Teso ended on Wednesday.
Christopher Saazi, the Executive Director of Nile Fishing
Company that partners with Yamaha Motor Company says that the new bikes are
cost-effective to manage. He says that the bike uses one litre of fuel to run
for 85 kilometers while a litre of engine oil covers 4,000 kilometers.
Saazi notes
that they had to take special considerations while designing bikes for the
local government leaders to ease their work.
// cue in “You know…//
Cue out…fuel consumption.”//
The new bikes come as relief to the sub-county chairpersons
who have been operating using public means like boda- boda. Charles Euchu, the
LC3 chairperson of Kakure Sub County in Kalaki district says he was forced to get a loan
from the bank to get a motorcycle after getting frustrated by boda- boda
services in the sub county. Euchu’s excitement is not different from Abdul-Aziz
Ongodia, the Kumi Sub County Chairperson.
// cue in “I will be able…//
Cue out…perfect.”//
While handing over the bikes, Alupo asked the beneficiaries to
observe discipline to be able to serve the communities with the new motorcycles.
