Investors to get free land - government
A truck delivers sand at one of the construction sites for a factory in the Namanve Industrial park recently. photo by Rachael Mabala
What you need to know:
The president says the move is meant to ease doing business in Uganda and to attract more investors into the country.
Kampala- Investors are set to enjoy more favours from government, this time to acquire land at no cost.
The Minister for Investment, Mr Gabriel Ajedra, said a new criterion has been drawn by the government to start giving free land to investors.
“Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has developed a land allocation criteria which have already been approved by both UIA and PPDA that will be used to allocate land to all deserving investors in all our industrial parks across the country,” Mr Ajedra told the press at Media Centre in Kampala on Thursday.
He said investors in four government priority sectors; minerals, hospitality and tourism, agro-processing and ICT, will get land.
“The land is subsidised for investors in line with the government policy on prioritised investment sectors,” Mr Ajedra said.
The minister added that land will be given out without following public procurement procedures in the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA) Act.
“The President on many occasions has asked why investors are subjected to PPDA because they come into the country when they express interest to set up businesses,” said Mr Ajedra.
However, the rest of the investors will pay premium of $80,000 per acre but will also be exempted from PPDA procedures.
UIA has in the past reclaimed land in Namanve Industrial Park from investors who failed to developed the plots.
conditions of land acquisition
Performance security. Investors allocated free land will provide a performance security in form of a bank or insurance bond equivalent to 10 per cent of the value of the leased land valid for 18 months within which the condition should have been fulfilled.
Eighteen months rule. Within 18 months from the date of allocation, the investor should have started development of the land, failure to do that, the lease shall automatically elapse.
No change of shreholder. There will be no change of shareholder for the three years and no transfer of land, all intended to eliminate ‘fake’ investors.
