KAMPALA, UGANDA: Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is targeting to attract investment projects worth $850 million in this calendar year.

The investment promoter has hopes of attracting projects of investment value worth that much because of further improvement in the investment climate this year.

“We are improving the investment climate where government is ensuring that power tariffs that had been taken to be the highest in the region are brought down with the completion of the Bujagali power project, which will produce 250MW by July next year and the Karuma power plant whose process is on course,” said the authority’s executive director Prof. Maggie Kigozi.

With support from the World Bank, the authority is developing the Kampala Business and Industrial Park (KIBP) at Namanve, 20km East of Kampala.

“We have got 300 investors planning to invest in the park and in addition, we have identified more industrial parks in Mbarara and Kasese in western Uganda, Soroti in the east and Gulu in northern Uganda,” she told The East African Business Week in an interview last week.

Kigozi said another item that would boost investment is the Ush16b land fund that was given to the authority to purchase land upcountry and service it with water, electricity and telecommunications as another way of attracting investor’s upcountry.

“In addition to the Namanve Park, we have got land in Bweyogerere and Luzira where we are developing industrial parks and these will enable us to attract more investors and enable small and medium enterprises grow,” Kigozi said.

She said UIA is also planning to hold outward missions to Egypt, Libya, Abu Dhabi and Iran.

This year, Uganda will host the third East African Investment conference scheduled for April.

Rwanda hosted the first one and Kenya hosted the second conference last year.

“It is our turn to showcase the investment opportunities to regional investors especially from Kenya and particular investors from the United Kingdom and India who are expected to attend the conference,” Kigozi said.

It is expected that five Heads of State for the EAC member states will address the conference that is planned to attract over 1000 participants.

Another opportunity the UIA expects to use to exploit in attracting investors is the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) conference to be held in Cairo, Egypt in April this year.

She revealed that Uganda plans to exploit the increase in food demand in the region by attracting more investors in the agriculture sector. 

President Yoweri Museveni in his New Year address said that with the increasing availability of electricity, there is greater potential for increased value addition to be carried out even at the farm level.

This Financial Year 2009/10, Government will provide support to food science and technology graduates from Makerere University who has acquired both the technical know-how and entrepreneurial skills at adding value to agricultural produce.

“It is possible to add value to a whole range of products including fruit, milk and meat products,” Museveni said.

“We are now targeting investors in commercial products who also create jobs for out-growers while adding value to our products,” said Kigozi.

She said there is increasing demand for food and food products in Southern Sudan, Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, the European Union, China, and the United States of America among others.

Kigozi said that government is also putting up the public private partnership (PPP) authority whose responsibility will be to package investment opportunities where the private sector and government can work together.

 

“We are fast tracking the law to establish the authority that will develop a database of all privatized parastatals that would be transformed into small, efficient business-oriented units,” she said.

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