190 investors appeal to Nakalema over extortion

At least 189 investors have so far reported to the State House Investors Protection Unit (SH-IPU) headed by Col Edith Nakalema, citing multiple frustrations in their dealings with government agencies and ministries.

Addressing communication officers of different government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) at her office in Kampala yesterday, Col Nakalema said local investors have reported more complaints compared to their foreign counterparts since SH-IPU was established in September last year.

READ: Investors being frustrated by govt officials - Nakalema

“We received complaints from 189 investors where 96 were from our local investors while the rest were from foreign ones. We forwarded their complaints to different investigating agencies such as the Inspectorate of Government and State House Anti-Corruption Unit and also started engagements with the relevant MDAs,” she said.
Complaints from local investors, according to Col Nakalema, hinged on issues to do with unfair taxation and the high cost of doing business in Uganda.

“For foreign investors, the issues are; fraud, where fraudsters are diverting them from the airport and the investors end up losing all their resources, there is also bribery and use of false documents where people are using government domain; and another major one is delayed decision making by officials from different MDAs,” she said.

President Museveni established SH-IPU to promote an investment environment free from corruption that is orchestrated by different players in the government and private sector.

The Unit, according to Col Nakalema, among others, coordinates investigations of all investor-related complaints, coordinates all investment stakeholders, and supports a friendly dispute resolution approach.

“We have coordinated with different government agencies who have responded positively, for example, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and Ministry of Finance have sensitized local investors about their rights and available government benefits such as the Small Medium Recovery Fund whose uptake was Shs6b in June last year but had grown to Shs31b in December,” she said. 
“For foreign investors, different MDAs such as Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and others have also swung into action,” she added.

Col Nakalema informed the government communicators about the SH-IP Electronic Investors Protection Portal (EIPP) which is helping investors overcome some of these challenges by providing prior information.

“We are coordinating to ensure that this portal allows them to do due diligence before they fall in the hands of fraudsters and as well know different correct steps they can go through not to be cheated,” she said.
Speaking to Daily Monitor on the sidelines of the meeting, the communication officers said the Unit is helping them fight fraud.

“In line with SH-IPU, we at URA take investors as our primary targets of taxation and we have improved and revamped our process to create ease of access for information that an investor would want and have digitized most of our services,” Mr Ibrahim Bbosa, the spokesperson of URA, said.
The spokesperson of UIA, Mr David Rupiny, said they have eased their processes by ensuring that investors are served diligently.