Envoys urged to solicit credible investors for Uganda
Uganda's ministry of foreign affairs permanent secretary Vincent Bagiire. PHOTO/HANDOUT
What you need to know:
- Uganda's Consulate in Mombasa, led by Ambassador Paul Mukumbya, was honoured as the best-performing mission.
Ambassadors have been urged to conduct market intelligence in their respective missions before securing investors, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign affairs (MoFA), Vincent Bagiire Waiswa, has said.
Mr Bagiire made the remarks during the closure of the week-long ambassadors’ conference at the Civil Service College Uganda in Jinja City on Friday.
The conference, which was held under the theme: ‘Strengthening Governance and Performance of the Foreign Service for National Development,” aimed at appraising Ugandan diplomats on the government priorities and policies and enhancing performance and innovation among missions.
According to Mr Bagiire, the tool has been prepared by Amb Richard Kabonero, Uganda’s National Coordinator for the Northern Corridor Integrated Projects, and Amb Santa Mary Laker Kinyera, the Head of the International Cooperation Department at the MoFA.
“In a tool that Amb Kabonero and Santa have prepared, there is a requirement for some sort of market intelligence such that you can populate that table or matrix for us to be able to know that products XYZ can be consumed in such a market.
“Or that there are potential investors in this particular element and then we assist you in seeing how we can jointly get these investors or markets accessed,” Mr Bagiire said.
“The other issue, colleagues, is branding. Our personal branding in very simple ways, is the use of the MoFA email. I want to encourage us all to adopt the use of MoFA mail because it is extremely important,” he added.
Uganda's Consulate in Mombasa, led by Ambassador Paul Mukumbya, was honoured as the best-performing mission, while Uganda High Commission in Pretoria, led by Ambassador Paul Amoru, was awarded the missions innovative award.
The Abu Dhabi Mission, under the leadership of Ambassador Zaake W. Kibedi, clinched the title of first runner-up for best-performing mission, while the Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations in Geneva, led by Ambassador Marcel R. Tibaleka, secured the second runner-up position.
The chairperson of the rewards and sanctions committee, Amb Julius Kivuna, announced the awards, symbolising the Ministry’s recognition of hard work and dedication among its diplomatic corps.
“The awards entrench a culture of results across all missions, to provide for an opportunity for open appreciation and rewarding of performance excellence, the elimination of complacency among staff and teams at Mission level through expressed interest in their performance,” he said.
Mr Bagiire said the symbolic rewards not only celebrate the individual accomplishments of Uganda’s diplomatic teams, but also reinforce the Ministry’s broader mandate to advance Uganda’s foreign policy and enhance the nation's influence on the global stage.
