UIA needs sh460b for Namanve

By John Agaba

Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) needs $180m (about sh460b) to construct roads and provide water and electricity services to the over 2,000-acre Namanve Industrial Park in Mukono district so as to attract investors to start work.

Currently, the park has only one industry that is fully operating — Roofings.

Other industries such as Victoria Seeds and Alfasan Uganda Ltd have completed their sites, waiting to start operations. Kyagalanyi Coffee is preparing their site. Other entities are yet to develop their sites.

“There is a lot going on,” UIA’s executive director, Frank Sebowa, told journalists recently during a tour of the park. We need close to $180m to construct tarmac roads, provide water and electricity to all parts of the park to enable developers to start work.”

He said the authority constructed a 33KV power line that supplies electricity to Roofings Ltd. It had to compensate people above whose residences the line passed with a total of about sh4.4b.

“We are now planning a 132KV power line. We must finish the design by October next year,” said Sebowa.

He said the Government allocated sh2.6b to the authority this year. But this money was for developing all the 22 parks the authority is mandated to develop all over the country. Currently, they are only concentrating on nine parks.

Sebowa said if the Government were to fund the Namanve Park by itself, without relying on donors, it would require three to four years. Sebowa said encroachers, mainly brick layers, are a major challenge to the development of the park.

These, he said, make their work ‘double difficult’.

“They are a nuisance. They dig holes all over the place and we have to come back and fill them. There are kilns everywhere,” he said.true                         Brick layers have encroached on the park

He quashed claims that land in the park was allocated to ‘specific’ people, saying the authority has clear guidelines that govern the allocation of land in the park or any other park they have a mandate on. “Only those who meet the requirements are allocated land,” he said.

Since the park was set up they have received 431 applicants interested in acquiring land. Of these, 277 were allocated land.

“There are 77 entities which got land but have not done anything. These allocations have been cancelled and the land returned to the authority,” Sebowa said.