The recent allocation of plots of land to investors in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park in Namanve has aroused new optimism among officials of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) who say the park will trigger accelerated industrialization in the country in the coming months or years.

A total of 230 investors have been allocated land measuring 805.4 acres in the newly developed park located 11 km from Kampala along Jinja road.

Arthur Bwire Tukahirwa, the Director of Kampala Industrial and Business Park [KIBP] at UIA told The Sunrise that the allocation of land marked a fundamental stage in the long-awaited project that will bring together yet another large concentration of industries in the country.

The allocation of the plots came after the completion of the massive development works by the construction company Spencon. The job represented the completion in the development of the first phase of the industrial park.

The swampy area is now served with electricity, water, a 21km murram road network and drainage systems.

The development of the park was facilitated by a $26 million (Ushs 47 billion) World Bank loan that was supplemented by a Ushs5 billion contribution from government to cater for the development of first phase of project covering 415 hectares out of the total 894-hectares of the park.

Bwire noted that first beneficiaries came mainly from the manufacturing sector because of their expected contribution to boosting economic growth through job creation and increasing revenue to government through taxes.

A close look at the list of beneficiary investors also reveals that many of them already hold significant investments in the country and therefore look forward to perhaps some expansion. But according to Bwire, there are many new companies from abroad that want to engage in manufacturing.

With the priority investors now catered for, the agency is looking towards facilitating local investors in areas such as, agro-processing, Information Communication Technology (ICTs) mineral development, and business outsourcing to secure land in the park.

Bwire says they are in the process of scrutinizing mostly from Ugandan companies, which could result into the allocation of the remaining 1,269 acres of land. The agency has also earmarked 463.3 acres for Freight and Forwarding companies.

While some investors have been categorized as priority and managed to have the fully subsidized by UIA, they however had to meet strict conditions. These included 1) a requirement that their total investment per acre would exceed US $ 1million.

They also had to commit to the condition that the percentage of export of value-added products would be equal to a minimum of 80 percent total product value. He added that the investors were required to show that they would create a minimum of 15 skilled and 30 semi-skilled workers per acre of land requested.

Now that they have secured the land, Bwire noted, investors are facing up to perhaps even more challenging tasks of conducting Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) which will have to be approved by the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).

They also need raise finances and order for equipment which could bring about some delays before the country can begin to see the actual fruits of the Namanve park in terms of productivity and jobs.

Coke and Roofings kicked it off
While the first big allocations have only been completed, it is worth noting that two big companies have already made significant progress in establishing factories at the industrial park.

Century Bottling Company and Roofings Ltd, the producers of Coca Cola and other sodas together with Roofings Ltd have already erected big factories on the land.

UIA granted the two companies land as early as 2006 because, as Bwire explained, they are strategic investors but also they already had most of the requirements the investment agency needed in order to grant a company land.

Roofings Managing Director Skander Lalani said recently that his new plant at Namanve will employ 800 more workers, more than double the number of workers the company currently employs.

The Roofings project is being undertaken in phases and its total cost is estimated at US $ 128 million.

Small and Medium Scale Companies not left out

A provision has been made to cater for the growth of the SME sector where UIA has planned to build up spaces for SMEs in the KIBP.

Third party developers and UIA itself will manage development of the park for SMEs. SMEs have an alternative of establishing themselves as tenants.

 The Namanve industrial park was first mooted way back in 1997 but had failed to take off because of lack of money.

The long period it has taken for the park to reach the current state brings into serious doubt about the feasibility of UIA and indeed of the government to develop at four new industrial parks across the country.

UIA has the task of developing 22 industrial parks in places like Mbarara, Mbale, Soroti and Gulu, Kasese, Kabale, Masaka and Arua. The agency is already running behind schedule on some of these plans.
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