Officials from the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development have been to Ntungamo District to access the progress of the government's investment into Inspire Africa coffee value addition factory.
Government commenced huge investments into this factory two years ago and these officials visited the site to establish whether the money invested complies with what is on ground.
While here, Nelson Tugume the executive director Inspire Africa coffee told them that they require more USD 122m to invest in the coffee tourism, hospitality and the coffee academy.
Two years ago, government committed itself to invest in the establishment of a coffee value addition factory in addition to what Inspire Africa coffee had already established at that time.
Upon, investment what used to be a coffee halor has since turned into a huge factory that has started making soluble coffee ready for export.
Today, a section of officials visited this site to access the progress of government's investment and whether there is need for more funding.
"We are here to see what exactly has the government investment done. Do we see the factory that we expect to see having invested in it since two years back? How far have we gone in this facility and how is it going to support the farmers and what kind of equipment is going to be installed here" Ms Maris Wanyera the acting director Debt and Cash policy in the ministry of finance stated.
During the tour of this factory, Nelson Tugume the Chief Executive Officer for Inspire Africa coffee told the officials that they require more USD 122m to invest in the coffee academy, tourism and hospitality.
"This is a huge project and you have not seen other parts of the project the coffee tourism and academy which ofcourse required more investment to be done but I believe once we are done with the coffee processing and value addition center then the investment to do these other projects should not be a big deal" Nelson Tugume the CEO Inspire Africa coffee noted.
Government recently earmarked Ush 75b in the budget to support in the construction and installations into this factory but also help to buy coffee from farmers for processing.
The construction of this state of the art coffee value addition stands between 62-65% completion but it is projected that in the next 5 months it will be almost complete.
"We have since invested in this project about USD 22M but so far so good we are greatly impressed with what we are seeing. What may be required after this investment, government will discuss and what else needs to be added" Maris further noted.
But while government has largely invested into the establishment of this coffee value addition plant, coffee farmers still decry of lack of fertilizers to boost quality coffee production.
Experts have now challenged it to invest in organic fertilizers and irrigation.
"There is over 10million tons of cow dung in only Karamoja subregion and therefore my question has been so you really need go and get fertilizer from abroad? Why can't government invest in getting fertilizer from that area and supply it to coffee farmers? Because honestly to produce good quality coffee, farmers need to fertilize their coffee plantations as well as water for irrigation. So as government it's not about focusing on value addition but also invest in fertilizer and water for irrigation" Nelson further noted.
This coffee factory is estimated to process and produce over 10,000 metric tons of processed coffee by close of this year but with a higher projection of 50,000 metric tons in the next three years to come.