David Muwanga
Ugandans over the next five years should expect to exploit 59,940 job opportunities soon to be created by the 286 investment projects that were licensed in the 2018/2019 financial year.
The planned investments that are expected by law to have become operational within the next five years are worth $1,347,147,174.80, said Lawrence Byensi, the acting director general of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) while releasing the annual investment report yesterday.
According to the report, the central region had the highest number of projects licensed totalling 229 that are worth $1,152,896,115.70, while the Eastern region got projects worth $48,558,503.
Northern Uganda attracted $13,759,352 worth of the projects and $131,933,204 were in the Western region.
Sector contributions
The manufacturing sector registered the biggest number of licensed projects (125).
“Similarly, in the under review, the manufacturing sector accounted for over 50 per cent of licensed projects,” Byensi said.
The manufacturing sector attracted the largest number of investment totalling 148 whose projects are worth $323,762,944.
The construction sector leads in terms of value to be invested totalling $427,833,892 from only with 17 projects.
This is followed by Agriculture, fishing, forestry and hunting that attracted 51 projects worth $291,025,831 while finance, insurance, real estate and business services came next in the 2017/2018 having attracted eight projects worth $106,897,658.
Twenty five projects were licensed in Transport, storage and communications worth $84,433,565 and under this sector is Guinness Transporters Limited, operating Safe Boda and transport via pipelines.
The company is investing a total of $3m and is creating jobs for over 20,000 boda riders.
There were 12 projects licensed in Electricity, gas and water to invest a total of $45,896,700, while mining and quarrying attracted six projects worth $41,304,650.
18 projects in wholesale, retail and accommodation services had an investment worth of $23,309,427 while community and services attracted one project worth $2.7m.
Ownership status
Eighty two of the projects that were licensed are owned by foreign investors, 170 are joint ventures while 34 are locally owned investments.
Sources of Investment Ugandans top the list of investors with 82 projects worth $328,768,786 that were licensed in the year under review.
China is the second source of investments with 63 projects worth $607,329,462.
China is followed by investors from Lebanon who are investing $70,627,724, India’s is $58,054,604, and projects from United Arab Emirates that are worth $55,715,000.
Future plans
Dr. Kugonza, the chairman of the board of directors said the authority is continuously contributing to improvement of the investment climate through developing a new Strategic Plan that is aimed at making the country more competitive.
He pointed out that UIA’s next Strategic Plan among others includes opening up more Industrial Parks, increasing on human resource base and improving services at the one stop centre.
“The expected Infrastructure Project by Lagan Group will focus on the Industrial Parks and this includes working on the roads, the sewerage system, installing a cable network, electricity supply and setting up an incubation centre for the small and medium scale industries,” Kugonza said.
He said there are plans to open up more industrial parks outside Kampala aimed at balancing regional development.
Other innovative solutions like what we have done at Mbale Industrial Park has lit up the Eastern Region and the investor was tasked to attract more investors from China to invest in the park,” he explained.
UIA Board Member Fred Opolot explained that the figure for Ugandans may be low because of the level of technological capacity and cost of investment capital.
“They are technologically advanced, so they have an advantage over Ugandan’s, however what is good is that they bring their capital and create jobs and introduce new skills for our people,” he said.
