By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
Ugandan government has been accused of running discriminatory financial systems when bailing out individuals with relief packages.
The accusations follow a recent cabinet approval to bail out telecommunications business mogul, Patrick Bitature of his unpaid debts with Vintage Mezzanine , a South African based company with a relief package of 240.9 billion Shillings.
According to reports, the government through finance ministry entered signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the businessman to takeover his Torooro Electromax Power Plant in exchange for a relief package.
The decision to bail out Bitature, the father of telecommunication industry in Uganda has caused heated debates among the members of parliament, business communities and taxpayers with many questioning the criteria which government employs to give financial aid to local and foreign investors in the country.
To the country’s oldest opposition political party, Democratic Party (DP), the bailout is discriminatory in nature and lacks uniformity.
Ismail Kiirya, the acting DP spokesperson and president of the Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) says Bitature is not the only Ugandan burdened with debts moreover mired by himself and wondered why government would interest itself in supporting him.
“It’s just looking at bailing out friends, relatives, and in-lawsbof this government government. Mr Patrick Bitature is not the only Business person with debts in Uganda but why are we looking at him only,” said Kiirya.
Pointing out other Ugandans whose businesses have exited the market and others still struggling with economic recovery, the DP youthful leader critiqued the speciality to bail out Bitature of the over 40 million Ugandans.
“We want to call upon the ministry of finance to come out with a uniform strategy to all business people who are struggling to be bailed out like Maganjo,WBS, Sembuule among others so that we don’t be selective on those to be bailed out,” he said
DP described the idea of bailing out Bitature as “brilliant” but, appealed to the government to uniformly extend similar packages to the other Ugandans to stimulate economic growth in the country.
Several indigenous Ugandan companies and businesses are on the verge of losing, or have already lost, tangible assets which they used as collateral for securing bank financing. These companies are now reportedly seeking for bailouts from the government to stabilize their financing structure. A myriad of factors including inter alia, high commercial bank interest rates, Government’s failure to pay suppliers, political instability in key regional export markets like South Sudan, and the weakening economy due to COVID-19 pandemic have been suggested as causes of the companies’ poor performance.
