The Uganda Development Bank has unveiled the second edition of its annual RISE Forum, bringing together business leaders, investors, innovators, and policymakers at the Sheraton Hotel Kampala.
Organised under the theme, “Shaping Uganda’s High-Tech Future,” the forum aims to explore strategies for expanding industrial capacity, strengthening oversight, and unlocking investment for a sustainable economy.
Notable participants included Patricia Ojangole, Managing Director of UDB; Arshad Rab, Chief Executive Officer of the European Organisation for Sustainable Development; Alex Wanume, Country Manager of NAO Energy Services; and Herbert Wakabu, Executive Director of Kwama Infrastructure Group.
They led discussions on investment, industrialization, and Uganda’s tenfold growth ambitions.
In her opening remarks, Ojangole commended the RISE Forum for providing a platform to drive conversations that shape industries for a sustainable economy.
“We believe that the dialogue arising from the forum and the ambitions shared on this platform will translate into investment, actionable guidelines, and tangible national impact — including improved air quality, employment, technology adoption, expert community collaboration, productivity, and national competitiveness,” Ojangole said.
She added, “For too long, our economies have been shaped by short-term gains, fragmented solutions, and mutual impacts often at the expense of long-term sustainability. Government-led isolated interventions will take us backward rather than forward.”
Arshad Rab emphasized that Uganda’s growth strategy requires intentional and engineered solutions, warning against fragmented approaches.
“Uganda’s ambitious growth strategy cannot succeed with small, fragmented interventions. Scale does not happen by accident — it is intentional, engineered, and systematically implemented. Without scale, productivity does not rise, industries do not deepen, and economies cannot compete,” Rab said.
He highlighted that the RISE Forum serves as a starting point to align industrialization, energy, agriculture, finance, and skills into a coherent, demand-driven system to accelerate Uganda’s economic transformation.