Chinese engineer takes Kenya by storm with his tuk-tuk van

 
Tuk-tuk assembler Li Shunkang with a customer at his workshop in Industrial Area, Nairobi. PHOTO/ANTHONY OMUYA  NATION

By FRANKLINE AKHUBULA frankakhubula@gmail.com May 15  2013 

 

In Summary

• Blaze Cycle has sold more than 400 units in the eight months it has been in operation. A refurbished or remodelled bike costs between Sh240,000 and Sh250,000.

Since he set foot in Kenya eight months ago, Li Shunkang has employed 200 people in his company, Blaze Cycle Kenya Ltd.

The mechanical engineering graduate from Chongqing University, China, assembles and moulds motorbikes into minivans or tuk-tuks, as they are popularly known in Kenya.

Which begs the question, how did he manage to take the rather tried and tested field by storm?

Li Shunkang says that he always wanted to create something efficient and useful in African countries out of motor bikes. He thought about the bikes because their fuel consumption is low compared to motor vehicles. He wanted to make something that would give new entrepreneurs maximum profit so as to grow the economy and create jobs.

His minivans have caught the eye of soft drinks giant Coca-Cola and the beverage manufacturer has entered into a deal with his firm to make several vehicles to help distribute Coca-Cola products in different markets.

Blaze Cycle has sold more than 400 units in the eight months it has been in operation. A refurbished or remodelled bike costs between Sh240,000 and Sh250,000.

Fuel consumption

“Considering what they can do, there are more advantages than disadvantages. They can accommodate many people compared to the conventional ones and maintain the same fuel consumption.

“Besides transporting efficiently, even in an unfriendly infrastructure environment where roads are impassable by vehicles, the safety of goods is guaranteed,” says Li Shunkang, who assembles tuk-tuks from Nairobi’s industrial area.

He anticipates that the new motor bikes have a bright future in the region. “We want to give the best to small entrepreneurs.” Li Shunkang also notes that the bikes can be useful to farmers for running errands, during harvest, or for transporting dairy products to the market.

According to the businessman, the idea is not about making money but creating jobs and that is what has informed his decision to train over 100 youths in the next two years for free. He says the youths will be equipped with the knowledge of moulding more motorbikes on their own, an opportunity that is expected to create jobs.

Blaze Cycle pays the employees Sh850,000 a month. The number of employees is expected to increase in the next five years to 5,000, Li Shunkang says.

Donate land

“I wish the government would support investors in Kenya and donate land to them to be used as investment zones. This has been done in Tanzania where the government has allocated over 15,000 acres of land where several factories are being built. If that is done, the economy will grow faster than Vision 2030 projects,” he says.

He adds that the other challenge in Kenya is that it takes long to start a business due to the procedures involved in obtaining the relevant documents, unlike in countries like Botswana and Rwanda where work permits take just a day to process.

“If we become successful in Kenya, our next big destination will be South Africa. The South African context may vary from the Kenyan one because we modify according to a country’s needs and those needs are never similar,” says Li Shunkang. Before coming to Kenya, he invested in countries like Brazil, Argentina, Ivory Coast, and Angola.