47,000 new jobs in industrial parks - government

Kampala.

New factories established in different industrial parks in the country have created about 47,000 jobs for Ugandans, Ms Evelyn Anite, the State Minister for Privatisation and Investment, has said.
She told Daily Monitor at the weekend that the new jobs have been created by investors attracted to industrial parks of Namanve in Mukono, Kampala, Wakiso, Kapeeka in Luweero, and that of Jinja.
“These are jobs created so far by the few factories that are already in operation but we expect the number of jobs to increase when the factories under construction and those whose feasibility studies are ongoing are completed. This gives us hope that we can find jobs for youth through industrialisation,” Ms Anite said.
Unemployment remains a major challenge for the country. According to the 2014 National Housing and Population Census, 18m people were in the productive age of between 14 and 64 years. However, 58 per cent of this age group was found to be unemployed, representing 10.4m.
According to statistics from the Uganda Investment Authority, Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) at Namanve, which sits on 2,200 acres of land, has 33 active investments or factories that are directly employing 15,000 Ugandans whereas 17,000 others are employed by 197 projects under construction.

More opening
Ms Anite said 74 other companies have been allocated land and are in “pre-start” stages such as in surveying, processing deed plans and titles, environmental impact assessment, and architectural designs, among others.
According to UIA, there are currently 8,000 Ugandans working in the Luzira Industrial Park where eight investors are already running industries. Some of the factories that are already running include Quality Chemicals Limited, which produces antiretroviral and anti-malarial artemisinin drugs.
In Bweyogerere industrial estate where four investments are already up and running, at least 5,000 Ugandans have been employed both directly and indirectly. Some of the establishments already operational are Crane Paper Bags Limited, which processes paper bags, Biyinzika Enterprises, which processes grains, Tarpo Industries, the manufacturers of tents and camping materials, and Maama Care High-Tech Nutrition Food Park, the processors of fortified foods.
At least 2,500 other jobs have already been created by three running factories in the Liao Shen Industrial Park, Kapeeka in Luweero District.
Ms Anite said currently, Uganda has more than 5,000 formal factories that are contributing to the revenue base of the country through payment of taxes. She added that there 52,000 informal factories that are running at a small scale production rate across the country.
President Museveni, while opening a government retreat last week, asked ministries to recruit scientists as planners because industrialisation will also need human intellect on top of the agricultural produce, natural resources and aquatic products to move the agenda.
Mr Museveni recently commissioned the Simba Cement Factory in Tororo and two tea factories in Kigezi sub-region, and is set to commission Goodwill Uganda Ceramic Factory at Kapeeka on September 21.
The Investment State minister also said with the establishment of both foreign and local investments, Uganda has started producing products such as tiles, public address systems, computer assembling, roof tiles, blankets, motorcycle tyres, television assembling and food products, among others.

The operational plants

Namanve
Century Century Bottling Co Beverages processing
Valley View Estates Ltd Industrial warehouse
Roofings Rolling Mills Ltd Building materials
Alfasan (U) Ltd Vet Pharmaceuticals
Comesa Technologies Ltd Agro packaging factory
Nice House of Plastics Plastics manufacturing
Toyota Uganda Ltd Motor vehicles and motorcycles
Livercot Impex Ltd Veterinary drug production
Saran Agro Investments Ltd Making of ‘Made Black Tea’
Victoria Seeds Ltd Seed processing
Interior Technologies Ltd Interior furniture
Leaf Tobacco & Commodities (U) ltd Tobacco processing
Kyagalanyi Coffee Ltd Processing coffee
MKP Group of Companies Assembling of transformers
Hima Cement Ltd Milling of clinker and gypsum
Opit Investments Grain processing
Uganda Police Force Police textile factory
Mariana Agencies Ltd Soap and vegetable oil plant
Kazi Group Ltd Cold Storage plant
Green Hedges Agro processing plant
Hansom Eastern Investments Agro processing
Steel and Tube Industries Ltd Bulk manufacturers of steel
FOL Logistics (U) Ltd Agro processing facility
Creston Properties Business Process, showrooms
Kingstone Enterprises Ltd Inland Container Depot
Lexus Deployment Ltd Industrial warehouses
Uganda Brilliant Pile Manufacture of blankets
Plasnet Olyset mosquito nets
Senzira Traders Ltd Plastic production & recycling
Luzira
Oryx Gas Uganda Ltd Liquefied Petroleum Gas plant
Graphic Systems (U) Ltd Laser cutting & metal stamping
Transpaper (U) Limited Conversion of paper
Blue Wave Beverages Ltd Bottled mineral water plant
Basere Investment Ltd Manufacturing of disinfectants
Masterwood Investments Limited Furniture and timber processing
Surgipharm (U) Limited Drug manufacturing
Bweyogerere
Crane Paper Bags Limited Processing of paper bags
Tarpo Industries Manufacturing of tents
Maama Care High-Tech Nutrition Food Park Fortified foods processing