Ministries list hotspots for local, foreign investors

KAMPALA-Local investors do not have to fret anymore about being left out of investments opportunities in the country.

They now have the opportunity to marshal resources, gain a competitive advantage against foreign investors, and invest in key sector areas in the country.

"Our locals should partner with other investors with resources by creating a joint company if they do not have enough investment resources so as to take advantage of the available opportunities," Irene Muloni, the Minister of energy and mineral development said.

Addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Wednesday morning, Muloni said once the local investors are able to pull resources they can then offer to partner with government to invest in some of its projects.

Minister Muloni (left) chatting with UNECE vice-chair Beatrice Florah. (Photo by Sylvia Katushabe)

 The press conference was at the upcoming conference on Public-Private Partnership. It is the first to be held in Africa and Uganda.   

 The three-day conference that will take place in Kampala from September 16 to 18, aims at providing opportunities for African governments and key sector players to showcase their projects and other investment opportunities to potential investors.

It is organised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), government and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) under the theme ‘Public-Private Partnerships, Africa's next big thing, in focus, people-first principles in support of UN SDGs'.

 The conference, according to Muloni is going to offer local investors opportunity to join resources with foreigners and partner with government to invest in some of the key areas in the extractive and energy sector, local government, works and transport and smart cities.

She named some of the hotspots for investments in the energy sector as being in the power generation, transmission and distribution.

She said these will be offered under the Build, Own, Operate, Transfer arrangement, whereby the investors build the power plants, owns it until they recoup their investments and then transfer ownership to government.

Under generation investment opportunities include building of power plants, management of generation concessions where government leases out generation plants out to the private sector and development of geothermal projects.

 Muloni said they are already sites for geothermal production.

Under transmission, available opportunities include the development of the transmission infrastructure such as building high voltage lines.

"We are looking at leasing arrangements where the private sector provides infrastructure such as transformers on a leasing agreement. We can also have the private sector build the transmission network then allows government to operate but is paid through the sale of power," she stated.

Under distribution, she said they are looking at leasing assets in distribution to a private operator.

She also noted that there are other 25 opportunities available for both local and foreign investors in the petroleum sector, some of which include human resource management, supplies, foodstuffs and security.

Dr. Agnes Atim, the chairperson of the local government finance commission said the local government ministry also has a menu of opportunities that local and foreign investors can tap into.

These include agriculture and mineral development, agro-industries, tourism, infrastructure and energy.

"We are ready and prepared to engage with the private sector in terms of financing of projects in all local governments," she said, noting that the ministry is looking at an agri-led framework to guide their partnership with the private sector.

In her remarks, Muloni noted that due to enormous demands on government, the resource envelope tends to be overstretched leaving it unable to meet all the needs of its citizens. Therefore, there is a huge need for the Public-Private Partnership to cover these gaps.

She said the private sector needs to take advantage of these gaps to invest and help the country generate wealth and spur economic growth.

Lt. Gen. Charles Angina the deputy coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation said the first day of the conference will be a training that will highlight the complexities in PPPs and urged Ugandan investors to take advantage of it.

He said the conference will enable Uganda to create partnerships in areas where they lack resources.