Coordinating office to monitor Ugandans' investments back home

By Prossy Nandudu

Ugandans living in the diaspora are to set up a coordinating office that will help monitor their investments back home.

This will reduce losses and theft of funds sent by those in the diaspora through relatives and friends for their projects like construction and real-estate development.

This was revealed by the coordinator of the Diaspora Patriotic Development Association, Robert Kivumbi in a meeting with members of the association and the media at Hotel Explorer on Monday.

Kivumbi said that people are stilL stuck to the idea that whoever is working or living abroad has a lot of money so they tend to misuse whatever is sent home for development.

"When they get the money, they first use that money to solve their needs even when you have given them their share, and keep posting pictures of good houseS and farming projects claiming they are yours but when you come home unannounced, that  is when reality dawns on you," explained Kivumbi.

He said that many of their members have lost funds the same way, many have decided never to invest back home ,others are now finding investments in countries like China,UK,Sweden,Germany,among other areas.

"So the platform is to encourage and persuade those in the diaspora to reconsider their decision and also invest home to employ our brothers who lack jobs," he added.

Through the coordinating office, those taking care of investments of their members will be given managerial and financial management skills before they can start work to ensure value for money.

The association that started three years ago, has realized investments in Uganda, including a leadership school in Mukono district; offered a 25-acre pieces of land through the director of operations wealth creation, Gen.Salim Saleh, on which they hope to put up a modal farm, hotel and real-estate business among others.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, remittances into Uganda from the Ugandans living abroad are steadily growing.

In 1998 remittances were estimated at US$165 million, equivalent to 2.6 percent of GDP. In 2012, this had risen to US$910 million, equivalent to 4.3 percent of GDP that year.

The average remittances per year between 2008 and 2012 amounted to about US$ 800 million, which exceeds official aid which averaged US$ 538 million but equivalent to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country.

Uganda receives a considerable amount of private capital inflows from Ugandans in the Diaspora with $736m (about Shs2 trillion) remitted in January and October 2014.