The UK Government Trade Envoy to Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Lord Dolar Popat, has pledged more funding for industrial parks.

He made the remarks after assessing the ongoing construction works at the Namanve Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) on Monday.

“We have a strong relationship between the UK and the Ugandan Government and we want to bring prosperity to Uganda, create jobs for Ugandans. The only way we can do it is by helping this country to industrialise. This industrial park is the beginning of many to come,” Lord Popat said.

An excavator lifting during the road construction at Namanve Kampala Industrial and Business Park. (Photo by Shamim Saad)

Lord Popat, who was accompanied by the British High Commissioner to Uganda, Kate Airey, held a meeting with officials of the Uganda Investment Authority led by its executive director Robert Mukiza at the Namanve offices before he also met officials of Lagan Dott, the contractors of the project, before being taken on a guided tour of the park.

Popat said he had seen good progress in the construction works adding that in two years, the park should be ready.

“It will create more jobs, manufacturing industries, storage units with the latest technology and all infrastructure in place. This will make a difference to all those in the private sector, who will occupy these parks,” Lord Popat said.

He said funding of industrial parks would be rolled out to other towns, like Kisoro, Kabale, Mbale and Soroti.

In November last year, Lord Popat promised to raise investment in Uganda’s industrial parks from £500m to £2.5b in the next five years.

“We want to see more industries built by UK Lagan Dott, which is a reputable company in association with the Ugandan government and funding from the UK Export Government Finance to help build these parks. All we want to do is to speed up the process and that is why we are here,” Popat said.

Part of the road being constructed at Namanve Industrial Park by Lagan Dott. (Photo by Shamim Saad)

Lagan DOTT Namanve Limited is a joint venture established between UK contractors Lagan Group Limited and local Ugandan contractor DOTT Services Limited to develop the infrastructure for the KIBP.

The current construction works are being funded through a loan from UK Export Finance. The $200m project caters for tarmacking the roads, traffic management system, water distribution network, sewage network, waste treatment system, street solar lighting, fibre optic network, power supply network, both grid and solar, firefighting systems and development of an SME park for incubation, among others.

Robert Mukiza, Director General, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) (right) speaking during a visit to the Namanve Industrial Park as Lord Dolar Popat looks on. (Photo by Shamim Saad)

Mukiza noted that the project would be completed on time. “We shall complete the project according to schedule. The UK Government is impressed with the progress on the ground and they are looking to continue supporting UIA in the industrialisation agenda of the country.”

Mukiza said they had written to factories that had encroached onto the road reserve and directed them to give access to the contractor.

He said they were rolling out the industrialisation agenda across the country using 12.5 square miles of land for industrial park development given free by local governments.

“I want to thank the local government for embracing the industrialisation agenda,” he added.

Robert Mukiza, Lord Dolar Popat (third left), Lagan Dott Namanve Limited staff and other dignitaries touring Namanve Industrial Park. (Photo by Shamim Saad)

Eng. Andrew Bamanya, the chairperson of the board of Lagan-Dott JV, said the KIBP was a design and build project.

“Regarding the design part, we have so far covered over 90% and with the physical construction that you are seeing now, we are at 30%. There has been a lot of third-party interference. This is a brownfield. Brownfield means you operate at the same time when the different industries are also operating, the traffic of the different industries versus our traffic and that has affected our progress,” he said.

He also noted that most of the roads in the park were new roads.

He said they were working with UIA to ensure they had full access to all the needed sections and that now they were working on 25km out of the 43km of roads within the park.