President Yoweri Museveni interacting with workers assembling televisions at Orion Electronics Limited during the launch of the factory in Namanve, Mukono district on Saturday. The President commissioned seven factories in the industrial park.
The new factories, which were launched on Saturday, will be producing beer, sanitizers, agricultural products, building materials, diapers and sanitary pads, refrigerators, water dispensers, radio sets and mobile phones. Others produce gumboots and tarpaulins.
ECONOMY INVESTMENTS
President Yoweri Museveni has launched seven new factories in Kampala Business and Industrial Park in Namanve.
This brings the number of factories in the industrial park, located on 2,200 acres, to 103, according to the Uganda Investment Authority.
The new factories, which were launched on Saturday, will be producing beer, sanitizers, agricultural products, building materials, diapers and sanitary pads, refrigerators, water dispensers, radio sets and mobile phones. Others produce gumboots and tarpaulins.Â
The plants are Yuti Breweries, Afford Agencies, Hygeia International, Ice Cool Industries, Orion Electronics, RIDA International and UIELA.
The combined investment of the factories is said to be $12m and expected to employ 2,000 skilled and semi-skilled people at full production capacity. President Museveni commissions seven factories in Namanve park
Museveni said Uganda’s purchasing power is expanding, and that should be an incentive for investment, according to a statement from State House.
“Uganda’s purchasing power is now $110b and it is growing,” he stated, “There is a market in Uganda for all these products being made here, such as fridges, radios, TVs and health products.”Â
Museveni added that the owners of the new factories first imported similar products into Uganda and later realised that there was a big market in the country for the same. This, he stated, served as an incentive for the investors to set up plants in Uganda to manufacture the same products.
“They have discovered it is better to produce the products here. They know how to smell profits and money,” the President said.
Aside from the Ugandan market, Museveni noted that the investors also have access to the regional East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), as well as the US, European and Chinese markets.Â
“We have an agreement to export 6,600 products to the US at zero tax and tariff-free. The US market is reliable because of the global politics. There are also the European and the Chinese markets,” he added.
With the transport network across the country improving and Uganda working with Kenya and Tanzania to build a railway line, Museveni noted that movement of foods through the East African region will be eased.
“We are putting money in Uganda Development Bank for you to borrow and expand your production. Labour is still cheap in Uganda compared to the international market,” he added.
Museveni also said the peace and stability which the country enjoys is a guarantee for protection of investments. He warned Ugandan technocrats against frustrating investments.
He also told investors that his government will discourage imports through the taxation tool and other forms of protectionism for the local manufacturing industry.
“Investors are in the right place at the right time. Africa is a very easy place for investment,” he observed.
Museveni also said the Government had addressed the issue of the costs of electricity, adding that the price of a unit would fall to US 5 cents soon.Â
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