Volkswagen will launch a car assembly facility in Rwanda today, the first such factory in the East African nation as Europe’s biggest carmaker expands its presence in the region.

Car ownership remains low in the nation of 12 million people with just over 200,000 private cars registered since 1997, according to the country’s tax collection body.

But Volkswagen, which already builds vehicles in nearby Kenya, hopes not just to sell vehicles but for them to also be used in an Uber-like car-sharing system where people will use their smartphones to book lifts.

The German car maker said in January that it initially plans to build up to 5,000 cars per year, beginning with the Polo and Passat models.