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Several sculptures of wild animals and birds erected across Entebbe municipality streets, and along the main highway from the airport to Mpala junction, have given a facelift to Uganda's main gateway- Entebbe.

The sculptures are part of the sh14b World Bank project undertaken by the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre (UWEC).

James Musinguzi, the executive director, explains that UWEC (formerly Entebbe Zoo) is of critical importance to tourism since it works as a window to Uganda's wildlife.

He noted that there was a need to display the sculptures across the streets and along the Entebbe-Kampala highway to propagate the conservation message both to the nationals as well as tourists who enter the country through Entebbe International Airport.

Parking lot at UWEC entrance

"Each sculpture will be embedded with bar-codes that can be scanned with a mobile phone to redirect readers to online information regarding the animal or bird depicted by the sculpture," Musinguzi explained. 

Other developments at the centre include a wild dog exhibit, elephant holding facility, kangaroo exhibits, modern aviary, and expansion of the chimpanzee island.

The centre is also expanding an animal hospital, and laboratories as well as setting up a new biobank which will reserve blood samples, tissues, and semen for animals and birds.

Other works are geared towards the expansion of offices, giraffe enclosure, road improvements, and constant power supply in terms of standby generators among others.

The sh14b World Bank loan was acquired through the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP) for the ongoing works which currently stand at 60% completion.

Sculpture of a Uganda kob by the entrance of Entebbe Zoo

Musinguzi further explains that the World Bank project also aims at improving UWEC's competitiveness in terms of infrastructure development, service provision, customer orientation as well as health, safety, and security for the animals.

Parrots centre

Other recent developments at UWEC include the African parrot centre built by Chubu University in Japan through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). While handing over the centre on March 27th, Inoue Yoichi, the JICA representative in Uganda underscored the importance and vulnerability of parrots which are regarded as the most traded birds in the world.

The centre will be used to house rescued parrots before being integrated into their semi-natural enclosure at UWEC and subsequent release back into the wild. 

The revamped centre will also offer research and conservation education on African grey parrots

Increased fees

Meanwhile, UWEC has raised the entrance fees effective July 1. According to the new tariff, African adults will be paying sh20,000 from the sh10,000 to access the centre, whereas African children between 3-14 years shall have to part with sh10,000 as entrance fees from sh5,000.

Sculptures of shoebills at the Mayors garden

Resident adults shall pay $10 while non-residents shall be required to pay $15 and yet the children shall pay $10 and $5 respectively.

Each learner in a school group will pay sh8,000 from sh4,000 which they have been paying whereas accompanying teachers shall remain paying sh10,000 as has been their rate.

Progressive report:

According to the tourism performance report 2023/2024, visitor entries into UWEC grew by 27% in 2023 to reach a record 619,164, 99% of whom were domestic visitors. By December 2023, the visitor entries had recovered and surpassed the 2019 pre-pandemic levels by 61%.