Lack of access to credit discouraging investors - expert

Jan 28, 2009

Lack of access to credit finance has been identified as the leading cause for the decline in Uganda’s business competitiveness, an official from the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), has said.

By David Muwanga

Lack of access to credit finance has been identified as the leading cause for the decline in Uganda’s business competitiveness, an official from the Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR), has said.

“In an executive opinion survey done last year, 23% out of 100 business executives interviewed said the lack of access to finance was the leading problem for doing business in Uganda,” Delius Asiimwe, a senior research fellow at the institute, said.

He said corruption was identintied by 17% of the executives as another major hindrance to investment followed by poor infrastructure (11.4%).

He said 10% of the respondents blamed high taxes, 9.6% poor work ethics, while 8.6% said the decline in the country’s competitiveness was due to inefficient government bureaucracy.

Asiimwe said in an interview with the New Vision last week that inflation tax regulations, policy instability and inadequate educated workforce were some of the impediments identified.

MISR collects data on behalf of the World Economic Forum, which is incorporated in a report for 134 countries surveyed globally. Uganda was ranked 128th in the report out of 134 countries.

Dr. Maggie Kigozi, the Uganda Investment Authority executive director, said adapting e-government would solve some of the identified problems, saying it would reduce bureaucracy and time wasting. “We need to go e-government to provide services effectively,” she said.

Investors can register and make payments online, unlike today when one has to go line up in the bank to pay and then go the Uganda Revenue Authority for another queue. This wastes time and money,” Kigozi said.

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