Investors Inject $3.5bn into Industrial Park Development in Uganda

The Director for Industrial and Business Parks Development division at the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) Hamza Galiwango has said 413 investors in the industrial park space have in the past years created about 45,000 direct jobs and 180,000 indirect jobs after pumping $3.5 billion in the sector.

The director said this to members of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, who had gone to meet the Authority leaders at Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) offices in Namanve, Kampala.

According to Galiwango, the Authority has drawn a new strategic plan for the years 2020/2021-2024/25 whose implementation is expected to result in the creation of direct and indirect 650,000 jobs by the year 2025.

The director told legislators that the same investors have also facilitated technology transfer and skills upgrade for Ugandans.

“The objective of developing these parks is to create jobs, ease accessibility of land for investments, introduce new research technologies and skills development as well as boost Uganda’s exports and therefore increase Uganda’s revenue base,” he said.

Nine public industrial parks have already been set up in Namanve, Bweyogerere, Luzira, Kasese, Mbarara SME, Jinja, Mbale, Soroti and Karamoja.

Other five private industrial parks are in Kapeeka, Lugazi, Buikwe and Mukono.

“Ultimately, industrial parks are targeted as a vehicle for making Uganda the leading regional exporter in high-value markets,” he said.

According to UIA Acting Director General Lawrence Byensi, investors in these industrial parks are engaged in agro-processing that include coffee, cotton, steel products, beverages, transformers, ICT and business process outsourcing, veterinary drugs, packaging materials, pharmaceutical products, human drugs, furniture products, paper products, animal feeds, nutritional feeds, leather and tarpaulin among others.

“In addition, a number of regional industrial and business parks are being developed for similar projects and this is in line with the Vision 2040 and the National Development Plan (NDP) III (2021-2025) which emphasize industrialization as the key pillar to employment creation and achieving middle-income status,” Byensi said.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance Henry Musasizi UIA for facilitating the establishment of the parks.

“We are glad that there is action being taken in regard to your mandate of developing industrial and business parks, you have reported to us on how the projects are progressing, at least now we know and we have seen, the Investment Code Act (amended 2019) mandates you to especially promote investments and facilitate investors, you cannot achieve this in the boardroom and you have proved this,” he said.