‘UIA needs a clear investment policy’

After restructuring, how did you attract investors?
When I joined, the Finance minister then Maria Kiwanuka told me, “Your Job is to settle down the organisation and develop the industrial parks especially Namanve. Kampala Industrial Business Park (KIBP)-Namanve in 2012 was a good bush. There were three or two companies there but we had to ensure that the genuine investors who had been allocated land since 2009 start developing their sites. Then 177 speculators were thrown out in 2013 and replaced.
We did a few other industrial parks in that period and we opened up a few roads in Kasese Industrial Park near Queen Elizabeth national park. We worked on Soroti Park; it has tarmac roads, street lights and water.
We got land in Karamoja for an industrial park but the locals said it belonged to their ancestors. However, it was acquired and fenced off. The master plan has been done. Bweyogerere, Luzira, Jinja industrial parks are fairly well given the limited resources.

How were you able to open up the social amenities?
We persuaded Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets (PPDA) to allow us apply a certain set of rules; one being the power to develop land allocated within 18 months and failure to heed to this prompted to taking away that land and having it re-allocated. This helped because in 2015, others were thrown out on grounds that they had not started developing their sites. Since government funds were not enough to develop the required infrastructure in terms of roads, electricity and water in the park, we used whatever resources we had to construct roads and install electricity for those who were ready. With a road, you have the right to tell the investor to either develop or leave.

Licensing projects is done annually. But how many of those take off?
On average 300 companies each year are licensed at UIA. Of these, about 40 per cent are out here in the country doing business. When you license somebody for investment; that is the first step. The next is to look for the money. But that person might have talked to his banker who agrees to pay. But persuading them to release the money can take a very long or short time depending on the project and the amount of money. Then once he is assured of the money, he must design the project. Some of the plans in this country take months to be approved.
Then by law, you must do an environmental impact assessment. Now all these processes happen in the background. So if we say this year we licensed about 300, may be 200 of these are still working on that process and when they come it is difficult to link them on the year they were licenced.

While at the helm of UIA, you introduced a system of promoting bankable projects. How was this system working and did it register some achievements?
We started on those bankable projects that can actually sell to outside investors. We wrote a few materials for promoting Uganda. During the final year, we did some bankable projects. In the past, it was adequate to say Uganda is at the equator, we have nice weather, a lot of rain, the land is fertile and we have minerals but so do our neighbours.
During my stay at UIA, we developed close to 50 bankable projects. We looked at the projects that people would be willing to invest in. When they go to their banks, the banks say ‘We need a due diligence’ and it takes long. You can persuade investors about a good project but they must see and appreciate it. If you go to KIBP in Namanve, there are 20 old companies working there but many others are coming up almost every day. It is like a beehive of activity.

What were some of the unique challenges you encountered while executing your work?
The main challenge working for government is always money. Government somehow does not have enough money to do all the good things we as citizens demand of it. For instance, for me to execute the role of setting up all the industrial parks, it would cost Shs9 trillion. No one would cut from a budget of Shs24 trillion to give UIA Shs9 trillion. It means a lot of other things would have to stop.
Absence of an investment policy which guides the operations of UIA as an institution was a challenge I experienced while heading that institution. We have been trying to amend The Investment Code Act since 2001 up to now.

With all these challenges, what advice can you give to streamline UIA operations?
I appeal to government to have a clear and well-articulated investment policy looking at what is investment? Who will be called an investor? What will happen to that investor? How will an investor be penalised if they do not meet their side of the bargain?

Were you forced out of UIA, judging from the friction before and after your appointment?
I had a four-year contract which expired. I am an old man of over 64 years and you know what the law of public service says. You can get a contract extended but I did not want to so it was mutual. At 64, I was asking myself: ‘What more can I add to the public?’ So, I resolved to end up in the private sector where I started from. I am a consultant in investment but mostly in energy because I am an engineer. I think I enjoyed my time in energy. The best time in my life was when I was restructuring Uganda Clays Limited because I was applying my engineering expertise.
Later on at the Uganda Electricity Regulatory Authority, I also enjoyed that time because I was in energy which is very close to engineering. I am not saying I did not enjoy my stay at UIA, I did.

Frank Ssebowa

Engineer Frank Ssebowa was born in Mityana District 64 years ago. He went to Makerere University (MUK)where he acquired a Bachelor of Science in Engineering. He did his Post Graduate at the University of Sierra Leone.
He lectured in the University of Nairobi and MUK as a senior lecturer of Engineering in the 1980s. He also worked with the International Labour Organisation in the rehabilitation of Luweero Triangle.
In the private sector, Ssebowa headed Uganda Clays into its restructuring as the managing director. He later Joined Electricity Regulatory Authority as its executive director. It is from here that he was shopped to head Uganda Investment Authority.