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OPINION

By Adam Kato

Recent research indicates that Uganda is making huge strides in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), far ahead of its sister countries in the East African Community.

In their December 2023 report, Ernst & Young indicated that Uganda had managed to attract a record high FDI of $10.2b out of the $13.3b which came into East Africa.

About seven months earlier, Uganda had bagged a golden award for attracting the best investment projects in 2022.

This was during the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2023 which took place in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

With the creation of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Investment and Industrial Development (PACEID) under the able chairmanship of Odrek Rwabwogo, quite a number of business and investment summits have been held in both Africa and beyond.

Such summits as the one in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, the UK, the US and Belgrade plus those which havoc taken place locally aimed at attracting investors to even drive the FDI higher. In addition, Uganda Investment Authority, Private Sector Foundation, the ministries of trade, agriculture, finance and others are doing everything possible to ensure that the country’s products surpass the global value marks in order to compete internationally.

Uganda has just successfully hosted the 19th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Third South (G77+China) Summits. The two summits brought together 121 and 134 countries respectively.

All the above have one common impact, which is growing trust by investors, both local and foreign, to inject capital into the Ugandan private sector.

For these investors to be safe and assured of returns on their investments, the State House Investors Protection Unit was set up under the leadership of Col Edith Nakalema.

Col. Nakalema earlier led a successful Anti-Corruption Unit of State House and during her tenure, billions of shillings were recovered from mostly corrupt government officials.

Under investment, the game plan is, however, quite different. Although there are individuals who con mostly foreign investors of their dollars with hopes of linking them to the President for various favours such as free land, the scope of “corruption and unfairness” is quite large.

In 2016 for instance, the media reported that at least 200 foreign businesses were operating illegally in the country. This means they were dodging various taxes, hence selling cheap stuff on the local market.

This resulted in unfair competition between the genuine local investors and fake/illegal foreign masqueraders.

Although Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) acknowledged the presence of such illegal traders and went ahead to issue a deadline for them to register or quit business, it is not clear whether such meant the last nail in the coffin.

Recent reports continue to indicate that hundreds of foreigners who come in as “investors” end up doing retail business in total disregard of URA’s set standards. This is another avenue for Afande Nakalema to shine by unearthing this racket in order to protect the local investors.

In addition, there are those so-called foreign investors who will set up “factories” producing a certain range of goods. In actual sense, these same factories will import the same goods from their home countries cheaply and fix on them the ‘Made in Uganda’ label.

Such people make competition unfavourable for other genuine investors, both local and foreign, hence the need for Col Nakalema to take note.

To back this up, a certain MP who is also a minister, ‘banged tables’ two or three years ago when he visited one factory in eastern Uganda only to find that the finished products were being imported and not made locally as claimed.

Remember these are the same investors who are given free land, tax holidays and even allowed to repatriate their profits.

We pray that after thorough investigations, such bad seeds are removed completely from the genuine ones so that investment thrives.

Even for the genuine foreign investors, the supply chain, right from manufacturing, through wholesale down to retailing, the process should not be solely captured by the factory owners. There is a need to put a stop somewhere so that the local traders can also gain a profit as well as provide jobs for the domestic population.

However, this is not to justify other malpractices such as conning foreign investors of their capital in joint ventures. Many foreign investors have been cheated by local counterparts who promise them joint ventures and end up registering companies as their individual ventures.

Such conmen later connive with some unruly security and immigration officers to throw out the foreign investors so that they share the loot.

Afande Nakalema should work with the Criminal Investigations Department to weed out such elements.

It is good the Nakalema-led unit started in high gear by setting up the Electronic Investors Protection Portal, a digital platform aimed at safeguarding investment processes in the country.

We hope and pray that all investors are accorded equal guidance and protection, so that the economy can thrive and we live a better and prosperous life.

Afande Nakalema, you have our trust and backing.

The writer is patriotic Ugandan