Six years later, Nebbi waits for 14km road to Congo border

The promise: For six years now residents of Nebbi, particularly the business community, have been waiting for the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) to follow up on a promise made by President Yoweri Museveni in 2010 to have the Road connecting from Nebbi town to Goli Customs point at Uganda’s common border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) fixed.
The road, an estimated 14.4 kilometer murram affair, is part of the 119 Kilometer Nebbi – Goli – Paidha – Zombo – Warr – Vura Road.
Mr Museveni first promised to have it fixed as he campaigned in Nebbi ahead of the 2011 general elections. The road was then included in the budget for the financial year 2014/2015, but it was never done.
Mr Museveni repeated the promise to have it worked on as he campaigned in Nebbi ahead of last year’s general elections.
“We shall start with Nebbi-Goli custom road, then come and construct the Paidha Road,” Mr Museveni told residents of Bar Okoro in Paidha town.

Mr Museveni’s critics were quick to accuse him of regurgitating old promises and presenting them as new, a charge which the former Minister for the Presidency, Mr Frank Tumwebaze was quick to deny.
The road is strategically important as a facilitator of trade between the Customs entry points of Goli in Uganda and Mahagi in the Congo. Mahagi and Goli are the main entry points for import goods from both countries, but with Uganda believed to be reaping more from it than its neighour.
Uganda’s influence and dominance of the trade in Congo can be detected from the predominant use of the Shilling in areas up to as far as 25 kilometers inside the Eastern parts of Congo. The Shilling is believed to constitute up to 85 percent of the currency in circulation in the region.
Besides, Ugandans are believed to dominate most of the cross border trade. Ugandan business people take foodstuffs, second hand clothes and all manner of consumer goods into the Congo and return with Timber, Cotton and Coffee.

Status
Apart from some patch work being carried out by the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) on bridge along the road, there is no sign that the upgrade of the road will be occurring soon.
UNRA, however, insists that the ongoing works are of the required quality. The Director for Communications at UNRA, Mr Mark Ssali, says that more than fifty percent of the work on the bridge has been done under strict supervision and that the work is satisfactory.

Impact
The result has been that the road has had a negative impact on trade. It has increased the cost of doing business. It takes either longer time or more fuel to move goods from Nebbi to Goli. Those who dare use the road must be ready to bear the effects of seeing their cars jerk and swing from one side to the other for up to 30 minutes yet the distance could have been covered in much less time. This results into delays in the movement of goods.
Accidents have in some instances occurred on account of the poor state of the road, while in others, vehicles, especially those loaded with huge volumes of goods, break down.
The onset of the rains usually presents different types of challenges. The road becomes impassable to cars that are not Four Wheel Drives especially around the Jukia hill area.
The alternative is to use the district’s feeder road which connects from Nyapara Market to Goli, but that is a longer route, which also means burning more fuel and by extension increasing the cost of doing business.

Also affected is a plan that the Ministry of Trade and Industry announced in May 2015 that it was to implement a project to enhance cross border trade. The Great Lakes Trade Facilitation (GLTF) project was expected to work towards a reduction of nontariff barriers to interregional trade by improving regional environments for business and by supporting regional measures to improve governance.

The project has also been designed to address the sources of conflict and poverty and underdevelopment in areas around the common border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and to improve regional infrastructure.
It was meant to improve the capacity for commerce by reducing the costs faced by traders, especially the women and other small time dealers.
The $10million World Bank funded project was also meant to have seen infrastructure such as the customs offices, border crossing roads and junctions at Goli improved.

14.4km: Distance of the Road connecting from Nebbi town to Goli Customs point at Uganda’s common border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which President Yoweri Museveni in 2010 promised to fix.

Official explanation

UNRA’s Ssali says that the organization has already started making moves towards ensuring that the plan to upgrade the road is realized.
“Final detailed engineering designs were submitted in December 2016 and the road is among those that have been prioritized for construction in the next five years,” Mr Ssali said.

Voices

“It (tarmacking the Nebbi – Goli road) was as presidential pledge to the people of Nebbi and Zombo Districts. The president is all too aware that all border roads need to be tarmacked to boost international trade and regional business. We are hoping that the road will be worked on this financial year, but the bottom line is that it will be surely worked on like many other pledges to different areas were worked on. I urge people to stay calm.”
Minister of State for Northern Uganda, Ms Grace Kwiyucwiny

“Our traders have already been cashing in on the poor infrastructure especially lack of electricity and roads in the Congo to reap big from some of their agricultural produce like Coffee and Cotton. I think that improvements on the road will give trade in that area an even bigger boost and it might lead to a boost in industrial production, which will be an additional benefit to the economy.”
Powel Ongei, Businessman and Farmer in Nebbi

“Issues evolving around infrastructural development should not be subject to pledges by political leaders. They should be embedded in the National Development Plan and prioritized accordingly. As for now we are not really benefitting from the 30 year development plan because of corruption and unnecessary interference from political leaders.” Christopher Thumitho Businessman in Nebbi Town

“The time we take on the road means that we make less money than we should actually be making. I don’t think one would even be wrong to suggest that people in Nebbi are poor because of the poor state of our roads. If they were good, the spinoffs would be there for all to see. It needs to be urgently worked on.”
Ms Brenda Micparwoth, business woman in Nebbi

[email protected]