A factory in Mukono District opened on Thursday and sent its first HIV self-test kits abroad the same day.
Zakayo Industries Limited commissioned its diagnostics plant at Ntenjeru, where workers now assemble and package HIV self-test kits for Uganda and its neighbours. A consignment for Kenya had already left, the Daily Monitor reported.
Chief Executive Ronald Zakayo Watanda said the factory would create jobs and help Uganda supply regional markets. Then he pointed to the Kenya shipment. “As a matter of fact, we exported today,” he said.
The HIV self-test kits are OraQuick oral swab tests, made in partnership with US company OraSure Technologies. A user swabs their gums and reads the result alone. No blood is drawn and no health worker has to be present.
That is the announcement. The numbers underneath it say more.
Plant manager Shamim Nagayi said assembly began in June at about 10,000 kits per eight-hour shift. Output of HIV self-test kits has since climbed to between 50,000 and 60,000 a day. The factory employs more than 120 people.
There is a catch in the word “manufacturing”. Nagayi said the plant currently handles assembly and secondary packaging. Primary packaging and full manufacturing are planned by 2028. For now, Uganda is building the last stretch of the chain for HIV self-test kits, not the whole of it.
OraSure’s John Ballester, its senior director for international diagnostics, explained why that still matters. The old route began with raw materials made in the United States. They went to Thailand for assembly, then travelled by freight to African markets. Local assembly shortens it. Ballester said geopolitical tensions and rising freight costs had exposed the risk of long supply lines.
Price will decide whether any of this reaches ordinary people. The company hopes to cut the retail price of HIV self-test kits from between Shs25,000 and Shs30,000 to Shs7,000. Nagayi added that government health facilities already give the kits out free.
The need is plain. Dr Charles Olaro, the Director General of Health Services, put Uganda’s HIV prevalence at 5.9 per cent. He estimated that 150,000 to 200,000 Ugandans do not know their status. Olaro said HIV self-test kits can reach people held back by stigma, privacy worries or the inconvenience of a clinic visit. A reactive result must still be confirmed at a health facility.
Money from abroad has shaped this debate too. A study in The Lancet Global Health, led by researchers at the London School of Economics and Duke University, followed four organisations in Uganda and Zimbabwe. Their US funding was cut in 2025. Testing at those groups fell by 59 to 64 per cent from 2024 levels and had not recovered by March 2026.
Four organisations serving high-risk groups cannot stand in for a whole country, so the figures should not be read as national. The lesson still travels. A supply of HIV self-test kits made at home is harder to strand when a donor changes course or a shipping route closes.
Uganda has been heading this way for a while. In April, the Ministry of Health launched locally made HIV, malaria and sickle cell tests from Kampala firm Microhaem Scientifics. Those are screening tests for health workers, and State Minister for Trade Wilson Mbadi said they cost about $0.60 against $1.50 for imports.
Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said then that the “biggest task now is to secure markets for our products across Africa.” Thursday’s Kenya shipment is an early answer.
Ballester said the partnership could also support local production of other diagnostics, including Ebola tests. The company plans to explore hepatitis and sickle cell tests as well. In a region that has spent much of the year fighting Ebola, that ambition carries extra weight.
The promise is a cheaper test, made closer to home. The proof will be a Shs7,000 price on a pharmacy shelf, and a steady supply behind it.
