Uganda Road Fund receives acclaim for new home
The chief executive officers (CEOs) who preside over road funds from over 15 African countries on Thursday marveled at the spectacular building and praised executive director Andrew Naimanye, URF, and Uganda for this pioneering work.
PPDA-URF Towers in Kampala. (Photos by Colleb Mugume)
NewVision Reporter
@NewVision
_______________________ Executive Directors of Road Maintenance Funds of various African Countries take a group picture.
The Uganda Road Fund (URF) has been extolled by Africa’s Road Maintenance Funds Association (ARMFA) for constructing the URF Towers, saying it is one of the best buildings owned by a national road fund on the entire continent.
URF, which is supervised and regulated by the Works and Transport Ministry, recently celebrated a decade of its existence, and this week, proudly showed off its grand permanent home.
The chief executive officers (CEOs) who preside over road funds from over 15 African countries on Thursday marveled at the spectacular building and praised executive director Andrew Naimanye, URF, and Uganda for this pioneering work.
This was during ARMFA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) Board meeting held in Kampala. The four-day continental event that began on Wednesday, November 22, and ended on Saturday, showcased Africa’s finest fashion and dialects as well as French, Portuguese, and English which were the official trilingual modes of communication.
The delegates also enjoyed a tour of this architectural masterpiece as part of their country tour and will explore Uganda’s recent infrastructure and road projects to benchmark and compare notes.
“I am also happy to note that our very own CEO of Uganda Road Fund – Dr Eng. Andrew Naimanye was elected as a First Vice President at ARMFA. We congratulate him on this achievement and for hosting this ARMFA ExCo meeting in Kampala, Uganda,” said Gen. Edward Katumba Wamala, who was the chief guest.
Host Naimanye basked in the limelight and pledged to have Uganda’s outstanding financial commitments to ARMFA fulfilled before the end of the calendar year.
“We need to meet regularly and ensure that all the countries that are not active and those which are semi-active improve their commitment to ARMFA,” he said.
Katumba praised Naimanye and his team for the massive project that cost the Ugandan government over sh50b to construct. 
Eng. Naimanye commended Katumba for his role in Africa’s peacekeeping missions in Somalia and DRC and praised him as a well-decorated military officer who had improved Africa’s peace operations in his previous assignment as army commander before he was elevated to minister.
“My fellow CEOs, we are honored to have Gen. Katumba with us here. He has been very influential in the peace we have. At one time, he served as Commander of the defence forces and recently became an author after he wrote a book titled, Endurance a Sure Shot to Victory,” Naimanye stated in his opening speech.
The 10-storeyed twin-tower structure is also composed of two separate wings connected by a central circulation core. It has shared facilities including parking, a cafeteria, a gym, a daycare centre, general reception, and a lobby.
Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja who launched the tower in August this year, lauded the government and President Museveni for investing in this iconic building located in Nakasero, Kampala.
The Fund has a duty to finance the implementation of the Annual Road Maintenance Programmes (ARMP) that are carried out by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), and the other designated agencies responsible for district, urban and community access roads.
The building is a joint venture/partnership between two government agencies URF and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) which is the principal regulatory body for public procurement and disposal. All Government departments and agencies are obliged to follow the public procurement law.
Some of the officials present were ARMFA’s second VP Mohammed Kallon, Dr Ali Alkassoum the chairperson of the West Africa Focal Group, Pr. Angelo Antonio Macuacua, Ali Ipinge, and Fotor Abdel Djoubar.
Others were Rashid Mohamed, Nkekeletse Makara, and Moussa Savadogo.
Cameroon’s Moussa Aubin Essaie, who is the president of ARMFA, addressed the delegates in French, speaking through an English translator, he commended URF for hosting the delegation and committed more support from his continental association.
According to Naimanye, the meeting attendees were other CEOs of road funds in Africa representing both Francophone and Anglophone countries who have come here to compare notes saying collaboration is key since there is no need to re-invent the wheel. ARMFA covers over 34 countries including Namibia.
It was a male-dominated affair with only five ladies from the foreign delegation in attendance.
The ARMFA – ExCO meeting was held in Uganda for the first time since the continental body’s creation in preparation for the ARMFA Annual General Assembly which is due to take place in Ivory Coast in January 2024.