Invest in Health
Uganda’s healthcare system is divided into national and district-based levels. At the national level are the national referral hospitals, regional referral hospitals, and semi-autonomous institutions, including the Uganda Blood Transfusion Services, the National Medical Stores, the Uganda Public Health Laboratories and the Uganda National Health Research Organisation (UNHRO). The district-based health system consists of Village Health Teams (VHTs) who are voluntary community health workers that deliver predominantly health education, preventive and simple curative services in communities and constitute level one health services. Health Centre twos (HCIIs) offer outpatients services and are intended to serve 5,000 people. Health centre threes (HCIIIs) which serve 10,000 people and also provide in patient, simple diagnostic, and maternal health services and are managed by a clinical officer. Above HC III is the Health Centre IV, which is run by a medical doctor and provides surgical services in addition to all the services provided at HC III. A HC IV is also intended to provide blood transfusion services and comprehensive emergency obstetric care. Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health is seeking private sector investment to: 1. Increase energy supply in the low rural electrified areas 2. Renovate and equip selected hospitals
East African Medical Vitals (EAMV)
Proposed Investment: USD 18 Million
Financing Type: Equity and Debt
Project site and Location: Kampala Uganda
EAMV, the first state-of-the art medical consumables plant in the East African region, was operationalized in August 2021 and officially launched by the President of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Museveni on 11th December 2021. EAMV’s principal activity is production of surgical and examination gloves for the Ugandan and East African Market. Subsequently, EAMV
plans to add syringes, catheters, and cvondoms to its product portfolio.
EAMV currently supplies Uganda National Medical Stores, the Ministry of Health and Uganda Cancer Institute as well as the private market in Uganda. Regionally, the company has exported its gloves to South Sudan and Burundi.
Currently, EAMV has a production capacity of 95 million pieces of gloves annually. EAMV’s value proposition is production of high-quality medical gloves in shorter lead times, of three (3) to five (5) days, compared to up to three (3) months for exported gloves.
Achievements to date
EAMV has secured a ten-year off-take agreement from the Government of Uganda. Government of Uganda glove purchases make-up approximately 30% of the market. The company has since onboarded technical consultants with over 30 years’ experience in glove production from Malaysia and trained ten (10) Ugandan technical personnel for one (1) year in Malaysia.
EAMV’s operationalization and continued operation has the following impact:
Creation of 300 direct jobs and over 5,000 indirect jobs.
Saving USD 17.8 million on imports.
Technology transfer to the Ugandan market.
Accessibility of much-needed medical gloves in Uganda. The plant can supply gloves within five (5) days compared to the three (3) months required for imported gloves.
Justification for expansion:
1. As the first of its kind glove manufacturer in Uganda and East Africa, EAMV needs to take advantage of the growing virgin market.
2. At current full capacity of 95 million pieces of gloves per annum, EAMV can only capture approximately 70% of Uganda's current total glove marfiet (134 million pieces) for both surgical and examination gloves and only 12% of the regional estimated total glove marfiet (810 million pieces) for both surgical and examination gloves.
3. EAMV's factory operations are currently suboptimal due to high fixed costs. The facility's available land, operational structure, and fixed costs can be leveraged to increase production to eight times the number of gloves being produced currently.
4. Enhance accessibility to surgical and examination gloves. These gloves are mainly imported from Asian manufacturers and have lead times of three to four months. With shocks to the global supply chain, supply of gloves to Uganda and the region has been greatly impacted.
5. Uganda's health sector is still experiencing shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. These shocks were caused by a combination of the stress of managing countless COVID-19 patients and the global supply chain shocks caused by the pandemic.
Creation of employment.
EAMV's expansion will create an additional 511 direct jobs and 1,115 indirect jobs
