Investors fault govt for slow Kampala Industrial Park development

A section of the Kampala Industrial and Business Park located in Namanve. The park sits on 2,200 acres. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KAKUMIRIZI

What you need to know:

  • Some investors at Kampala Industrial Park are finding difficulty in developing their plots on the grounds that government has not established basic infrastructure for them. Infrastructure such as roads, water, railway lines and waste disposable facilities are yet to be installed at the Park in Namanve. Jonathan Adengo sought government’s view on the matter and what it is doing to fast track the Park’s development.
  • Bweyogerere Industrial Business Park consists of 50 acres, which had been allocated to nine investors, three of whom were operational. The business park has been equipped with the water, power extension and a tarmac road within the park.

In August during the Cabinet retreat at Kyankwanzi, President Museveni described his new term in office as Kisanja Hakuna Mchezo literally meaning a term of not playing games. The President set the attainment of middle income status by the year 2020, through developing the manufacturing sector, creating jobs and increasing Ugandans’ income.
Under this tenure, the President gave a mandate to the Minister of investment and planning and the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) to establish 22 Industrial and Business Parks (IBP’s) throughout the country by 2020 to create jobs and add value to locally available raw materials.

However, the Kampala Industrial Business Park, seated on 2,200 acres, is yet to take shape almost 12 years after it was set up. With 291 licensed investors, only 28 investors have been able to develop and operate in the park.
This forced government to withdraw land titles of more than 100 investors who had not yet developed their land, more than 18 months later as stipulated in the UIA policy which required them to develop the land in 18 months. Out of the 291 investors who were allocated 2,200 acres of land at Namanve Industrial Park in Wakiso District, only 28 are operational, representing only 10 per cent of the planned investments.

Some of the operational projects in the park include Roofings Ltd, FOL Logistics, Kyagalanyi Coffee, Steel and Tube Industries, Comesa-Namanve Industries, Orion Transformers, Interior Technologies, Valley View Estates, Saba Gifco, Opit Investments Ltd, Victoria Seeds, Century Bottling (Coca Cola), Sunbelt Industries, Three Ways Shipping, Kingstone Enterprises, Diamand Trust Bank, Roke Telecom, Hanson Eastern Investments, Leaf Tobacco, among others.

Lack of facilities
Over a decade later, proper infrastructure such as power, water, railway lines, roads and waste disposable facilities are yet to be installed at Kampala Industrial and Business Park .
Following a visit and fact-finding mission to the park led by the Minister of State for Investment and Privatisation, Ms Evelyn Anite, in August, she found some beneficiaries, including government agencies, had just started construction work.

During the tour, the UIA officials led by Mr Lawrence Byensi, the director for Investment Facilitation and Aftercare, in defence of the low development, said not all the 280 investors got the land in 2011. Mr Byensi added that lack of infrastructure such as tarmacked roads, electricity, water, sewerage system and incessant flooding in the park had discouraged investors.

In their defence, the investors faulted government for selling to them land in a swamp and also not developing the land with the required infrastructure. Some of the land is located in a swamp and as such requires backfilling, which they say is costly.

Some of the investors say power is a challenge due to the irregular and insufficient supply to the few businesses there. UIA data shows only 30 per cent have been connected to the power grid, and done on case by case basis.
The investors say the park does not have a proper waste disposal plan developed and as such they have to go Mukono to dispose off the waste. At the moment, the 40 investors operating at Namanve Industrial Park are managing their own waste disposal. However, Ms Anite says the master plan is already in place awaiting funds to address the waste disposal concerns.

Management crisis?
Ms Anite said there was need for an overhaul of the management of the park whom she says has mismanaged it.
“Double allocation of plots with a piece of land having three owners is one of the reasons hampering the park,” she said.

She says the revenue collected from the park alone is enough to sort out some of the problems in the park in six months. She said there needs to be an overhaul of the management and streamlining of the system to make it efficient.
Each acre, according to Ms Anite, goes for $80,000 (about Shs275 million).

When asked whether it was the poor management on the ground that is affecting the development, Mr Sebowa said: “…you cannot blame us for laxity in management when we have withdrawn titles from investors and awarded capable ones. In 2013, the same management that you’re accusing of laxity kicked out investors, who had failed to develop the land and awarded titles to others.

‘Government not to blame’

Dr Frank Sebowa, the executive director of Uganda Investment Authority, said investors should not blame government for failure to start construction on the land allocated to them.

“Look at Roofings Ltd, FOL Logistics, Kyagalanyi Coffee, Steel and Tube Industries, Comesa-Namanve Industries; these are big companies that have set up big projects. Why should they blame government for their failure to develop the land? If other companies have developed their land, why can’t they do it?” he said.
According to, Dr Sebowa, the park has access roads ear-marked and they are only waiting for government to get the funds for developing the park.

“When government gets the money to develop the land, we shall undertake those projects as stipulated in the master plan. We have already started developing the roads and beefed up security,” he said.
Ms Evelyn Anite, the minister of Investment and Planning reiterated saying as government they have plans of setting up the infrastructure around the park.

“We have done a feasibility study of the park and are looking for funding to the tune of Shs500 billion to fix the sewerage and also backfill the land in swampy areas,” she said.

During a meeting with all the 291 investors; those who have invested and those who have not yet invested, they all gave me their reasons and challenges. Among the challenges they gave, I have been able to address the issue of security,” she said, adding: “I worked with Gen Kale Kayihura. We have increased the number of policemen from four to 44 complete with a patrol car.”

She also said they are working on acquiring firefighting equipment.
“All these are incentives which will attract more investors to the industrial park,” Ms Anite said.

Other Parks

Bweyogerere Industrial Park
Bweyogerere Industrial Business Park consists of 50 acres, which had been allocated to nine investors, three of whom were operational. The business park has been equipped with the water, power extension and a tarmac road within the park.
Luzira Industrial Park
The park consisted of 64 acres, which had been allocated to 12 investors, nine of which were operational. The business park has been equipped with the water, power extension and a tarmac road within the park.

Numbers on Kampala Industrial Park

Shs 500 b
Amount of money government needs to develop the park

2,200

Total size of Kampala Industrial and business park

291
Total number of investors