Government to seek mandatory sell of shares for telecoms
If the policy is approved, companies such as Airtel among others, will have to sell shares to Ugandans through the Uganda Stock Exchange. PHOTO BY EDGAR R BATTE
What you need to know:
- No listed telecom: Uganda has no telecom, which are some of the country’s largest companies, listed on the stock exchange.
- In Tanzania, the country’s parliament passed the Finance Bill 2016 which makes it mandatory for all telecoms operating in the country to list on the stock exchange.
Kampala. The Ministry of Finance will this week table before Cabinet a government policy paper that seeks to have all telecoms listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange, according to Finance minister Matia Kasaija.
The policy paper, according to Mr Kasaija, will also seek to force all privatised companies to list on the exchange.
Most of such the companies had shown interest to sell shares to Ugandans years ago but have not to date.
Uganda has three privately-owned large telecoms including MTN, Airtel and Africell.
Among the privatised companies that the policy will target include Uganda Grain Milling Company, Kakira Sugar Works, Tororo Cement, Lake Victoria Hotel and Apollo Hotel now Sheraton Kampala Hotel, among others.
Mr Kasaija, who was responding to questions during the 8th National Competitiveness Forum in Kampala, said: “I am going to table a memo in Cabinet next week (this week) which seeks to make all telecoms and privatised public companies listed [sell shares to Ugandans].”
Although, Mr Kasaija did explain why the Finance Ministry wants to introduce mandatory listing, the move is clearly seen as one of the ways through which government plans to grow domestic revenue collection to meet policy targets.
This is not the first time government has proposed mandatory listing for telecoms and large companies.
In 2013, President Museveni said Ugandans must partly own (in terms of shares) large companies such as telecoms, banks and insurance companies, among others that make a lot of money.
However, no policy has been developed since the President’s pronouncement.
Currently, there are 16 companies listed on Uganda Securities Exchange. Eight of these are locally owned while the other eight are cross listed companies from Kenya. With the exception of Umeme all the other locally listed companies were once government owned enterprises.
Mr Godfrey Mutabazi, the Uganda Communications Commission executive director, told Daily Monitor at the weekend that this was “a perfect idea,” which will not only promote a sense of ownership for Ugandans but will build companies that serve the interest of the country.
Taking Queue
No listed telecom: Uganda has no telecom, which are some of the country’s largest companies, listed on the stock exchange.
In Tanzania, the country’s parliament passed the Finance Bill 2016 which makes it mandatory for all telecoms operating in the country to list on the stock exchange.
