By Our Reporter,
NATIONAL
In line with Presidential Directive to establish 25 Industrial Parks, under Rwakakamba’s stewardship, The Uganda Investment Authority managed to mobilize over 80 square miles of land across Uganda for establishment of industrial parks.
Factories in Kampala Industrial and Business Park, Namanve were only 21 by 2016. Currently, 190 factories are operational, 165 are constructing and 85 are in pre-start phase as of February 2024.
According to sources at Uganda Investment Authority, The number of licensed investment projects grew by 58.7% from 395 projects in FY 2020/21 to 627 projects during FY 2021/22 since Rwakakamba took office. Similarly, the value of planned investments registered 182.5% increased from $ 1.86 Billion in 2020/21 to $ 5.27 Billion during the FY 2021/22. In fact, The Daily Monitor published a performance ranking of government agencies on September 16, 2022, and UIA was ranked among the top performers with a score of 83.4%.
Additionally, in the first quarter of the Financial Year 2022/2023, UIA licensed USD 3.099 billion for planned investment projects held by Ugandans, as opposed to USD 485.7 million in the same period the previous year. The main reason for this improved efficiency is the increased performance of investment promotion activities, which have raised awareness among Ugandan investors.
There have been further improvements in indicators such as Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) as a share of GDP from 8.3% in FY2017/18 to 15.5% in FY2021/22 and the share of Manufacturing in Industrial GDP from 15.4% to 16.5% over the same period. According to the Africa Industrialization Index, 2022, Uganda registered a significant boost in its performance in the period 2010–2021. Uganda moved 5 places up from 25th position in 2010 to 20th position in 2021 with scores of 0.4988 and 0.5418 respectively.
Since he took office there has been increased focus on domestic investment, first with establishment of Domestic Investment Directorate at the Authority and nationwide investment summits aimed at engaging local investors that include; West Nile Investment Summit, Kigezi Investment Summit, Arua Presidential Round Table – and international Summits that targeted foreign investors. These include The Uganda- European Union Business Forum, Lohana, Afro Indian investment Summit, South Africa-Uganda investment summit, Somali-Uganda Investment Summit, Turkey-Uganda Investment Summit, Expo Dubai investment summit, EAC business forum, Japan Business Forum, NAM Investment and Business Summit among others.
During his term of office, UIA in collaboration with State House Uganda and Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development organized country wide Presidential Investors’ Conferences targeting four sectors of the economy, that is Commercial Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services and, ICT. According to UIA sources, the close collaboration between UIA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Uganda Missions abroad has enhanced Uganda’s strategic position of Uganda as a high potential Investment destination of choice and preference for Foreign Investors.
From the aforementioned successes, Uganda received the following recognitions:
November 2023, Go Global awards in Rhodes Island USA- UIA was given an award for the greatest investment catalyst in the world
• September 2023, Africa risk reward index 2023 – Oxford Economics; Uganda was recognised as the most attractive economy to invest in within the East African community(EAC)
• May 2023, Annual investment meeting (AIM), 2023 in Abu Dhabi; UIA was recognised with a golden award for attracting the best investment project in East Africa in 2022
• December 2023- Africa Development Bank (AFDB) Africa industrialisation index 2022; Uganda was recognised in the top 10 for industrial development.
Rwakakamba’s statutory term of office ends in May 2024 in line with provisions of the Investment Code Act of 2019.
