Firms given 60 days to surrender Namanve Park land

Jun 29, 2015

THE Uganda Investment Authority has issued a 60-day ultimatum to the firms that have not established businesses on plots of land leased to them in 2009 in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park in Namanve

By Pascal Kwesiga and Sarah Nakamwa

 

THE Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has issued a 60-days ultimatum to the firms that have not established businesses on plots of land leased to them in 2009 in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park in Namanve to set up enterprises or relinquish them.

 

The UIA executive director, Frank Ssebowa, told the 'investors' in a meeting at the Namanve Park which sits on land shared by Wakiso and Mukono districts on Friday that the ultimatum takes effect on July 1.

 

"If you know that we allocated land to you in 2009 and you have done nothing on that land, you are going to lose it in the next two months if you don't start utilizing it," he added, " I don't care who you are going to petition after our decision, but we shall have done our work,"

 

The park, he said, was set up for large and small and medium enterprises to create employment for part of the jobless Ugandans, and that keeping the land idle goes against the Government's plan of creating jobs.

 

"Your land is going to be given to other people. I have orders from high places, not above because that word has been abused," Ssebowa said.

 

The park sits on 2,200 acres of land. According to statistics from UIA, the authority leased the land to 245 'investors', but only ten of them have set up businesses so far.

 

"That means only 5% of the park is being utilized. I know 52 more are in the process of preparing their sites, but the rest have done nothing so far" Hamza Galiwango, UIA's director for land development said.

 

The authority's boss said the 'investors' will soon be issued with circulars directing them to 'take possession of plots' leased to them or relinquish them for capable investors.

 

"We have turned away more than 200 investors. Your land will have to be reallocated," Galiwango added. The 'investors' paid a one-off lease premium of $8,000 (sh26m) to the investment authority per acre.

 

The lease period had initially been fixed at between three years to 30. It has now been shifted to between five to 49 years, Ssebowa said. The firms also pay ground rent worth $10 (sh32, 000) per year for each acre and 0.5% of the lease premium in service fees annually for maintenance of the existing infrastructures.

 

Investors complained that the park has turned into a safe haven for criminals due to absence of lighting facilities, and that some women have been raped and other people robbed in the industrial estate.

 

Josephine Okot, the Victoria seeds limited managing director said, "We are at the extreme end of the park and security is a big challenge. I work 24 hours and I have to hire private guards to escort me up to Bweyogerere because there are no street lights,"

 

Pius Mugerwa of Coffee PIO limited wondered why firms are required to obtain separate environmental impact assessment certificates from National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) when UIA was issued with an overall certificate by the environmental watchdog for the park.

 

"Every company is different from the other and its activities will impact on the environment differently," Ssebowa replied.

 

He also explained that World Bank had put the cost of providing all the necessary facilities in the park at $207m (sh673b), but it pulled out of the project before the amenities were put in place.

 

Efforts, he said, have been made to secure a low interest credit from the India, but the Government wheels in the Asian nation are equally turning slowly like Uganda's.

 

"Pay your ground rent and service fees in time. A decision was taken that we use what we have to put in place the facilities," Ssebowa said.

 

Francis Mwebesa, the executive director of Great lakes steel and tube industries complained about the red tape investors endure to get their requests attended to by UIA.

 

"Bureaucracy is what behinds Government together, but we have improved. It takes 12 days now for one to start a business in Uganda," Ssebowa said.

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