_____________________

 INVESTORS PROTECTION UNIT 

When President Yoweri Museveni in December last year commissioned an online portal aimed at protecting investors, he was firm in his belief that the platform would serve as a "crucial tool in safeguarding the interests of investors".

Before commissioning the Uganda Electronic Investors Protection Portal (EIPP) on December 13 at State House Entebbe, the President had on several occasions sounded his frustration with corrupt officials, emboldening his commitment to fighting the vice.

In the context of investment, corruption manifests through issues such as bribes and delays in issuing such documents as investment permits.

According to Museveni, corruption has significantly hindered Uganda's progress.

To address this, he established the State House Investors Protection Unit in May 2023 and appointed Col Edith Nakalema to lead it, having previously been the pioneer head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit.

"Investors are being harrassed for bribes. That is why I have appointed Nakalema now to handle that side of the investors," the President said.

▪️ Nakalema appointed to lead investor protection unit

In entrusting Nakalema with leading the new unit, Museveni tasked her with examining and reporting "to me the performance of government officials and departments responsible for facilitating investments in Uganda and expediting issue resolution for our investors".

Within weeks, Nakalema's office was already receiving "so many complaints of investors who are invited using government domains by fraudsters". Local investors, too, were not spared.

It was getting embarassing and so to ease her work, Nakalema birthed the idea of creating "an electronic solution" for prospective investors to do due diligence to avoid falling in the claws of scammers.

She hit the ground running, reaching out to a trusted friend with vast experience in e-trading, who in turn connected her to the relevant experts. 

Her wish list was clear.

"I told them, 'all I need is to have an electronic solution that would be used by any investor wherever they are to do due diligence before they fly in, before they are invited by fraudsters'," she says.

▪️ Nakalema urges collaboration to support local investors

Nakalema's desire was to have a solution "where someone would just log in and we guide. If you want to invest in Uganda, start here, we put the chain of investment and we put authentic heads of agencies with their photos".

Working with the private experts, the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) would be the host of the portal, being the body with the rights to host all government IT systems.

"And so they worked together to come up with this very good portal," says Nakalema, who says the online portal has four main functions, which are:

▪️ Provides guidance to authentic govenment ministries, departments and agencies
▪️ Provides mechanisms for reporting or making inquiries
▪️ Ensures enforcement
▪️ Provides feedback

▪️ Role of State House Investors Protection Unit

The EIPP is both an information-based system as well as a case management system, providing up-to-date information" enabled by a collaboration with the key stakeholders in the investment sector.

On the portal, a tab for guiding investors has been summarized into three steps.

▪️ Step one guides them on where to find suitable investment opportunities (on Uganda Investment Authority - UIA's investor one-stop centre).

▪️ Step two is for primary registration, where investors are guided to the respective agencies for either business and intellectual property registration (Uganda Registration Services Bureau - URSB) or individual registration (National Identification and Registration Authority - NIRA)

▪️ Step three guides investors on which offices of government to do secondary registration or licensing for such services as;
- TIN registration (Uganda Revenue Authority - URA)
- land acquition (lands ministry), work permits (Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control - DCIC)
- investment license (UIA)
- trading license (cities or local authorities), and 
- environment and social impact assessement (National Environmental Management Authority - NEMA)

WATCH: 'Investors key priority'


"Uganda's President has put investors as his key priority: the protection, the guidance and the support of investors," says Nakalema.

"And that's why he established the State House Investors Protection Unit — to ensure that the investors are effectively guided, protected from the corrupt and supported by all government ministries, departments and agencies in collaboration with the private sector."

Nakalema is keen to note that the EIPP has been designed to track processes.

"For instance, if an investor logs in wherever they are, the system here will record that, for example, an Australian investor has logged in and he wants to invest. It also gives that investor immediate recognition that their complaint or inquiry has been received and they will get an answer within 24 hours — if it's an inquiry — or between two to five working days if it's a complaint."

▪️ Court halts sale of Indian investors' property

Whoever logs into the portal gets a reference number — via email — for tracking purposes.

The pursuit of adventure is part many visitors' checklist when they think of coming to Uganda. With this in mind, the EIPP also guides a user to a platform the bears information on the various places to explore in Uganda as an investor or a vistor.

Here, you find links to relevant bodies such as Uganda Tourism Board and Uganda Wildlife Authority.

▪️  Uganda one of top travel destinations for 2023

For the case management function of the portal, a REPORT tab is provided — and highlighted — for prospective investors to file their complaints by filling in all their details and acknowledging that the information provided is factual.

One can attach supporting documents to one's complaint.

After submitting the complaint, the person receives an email acknowledging receipt of their complaint along with a reference number to use for tracking. 

At times, some people have used a complaint form to submit an inquiry and vice versa. It is because of such scenarios that the investor protection unit gives itself a 24-hour allowance to sort such a mixup before providing the relevant feedback.

Under the enforcement function, Nakalema's team says it commits to prompt response, action, confidentiality, barrier breaking and feedback.

👉🏽 Head to investors protection portal here

The portal also accommodates whistleblowers for people who wish to remain anonymous.

Additionally, with time, testimonies will be published on the portal to inspire confidence in other prospective investors — who may have been initially hesitant to go ahead with their plans.

The EIPP also has documents that investors may find useful, including the Uganda Vision 2040, the latest NRM Manifesto and the National Development Plan III. 

A resource centre is also available, with "resource links on investment opportunities, registration, tax incentives and education as well as licences and work permit".

For all the information on the portal, the investor protection unit says it "tasked the different stakeholders with giving us either links or up-to-date information for their agencies, ministries or departments".

For now, a live chat functionality is available on the portal for real time engagement. With time, it will eventually be AI-enabled for 24-hour service delivery.

Along the way, more useful information will be added on the platform in due course, including information on certified accountants, law firms as well as flight information.

The unit also intends to also develop an app for portal.