Minister courts Indian investors to set up plants for finished products

The minister of State in-charge of Investment has asked Indian investors to set up factories and transfer technology to process finished products for export.

Ms Evelyn Anite told a delegation of 18 investors that the government is offering both local and foreign investors free land in the national game parks and in industrial parks to set up leisure and hospitality facilities to boost tourism, and also set up agro-processing factories.

A delegation of Indian investors from the Confederation of Indian Industry, who arrived in the country on Tuesday, is on a two-day tour.

“Last year, Uganda’s highest export to India was gold followed by cocoa beans. You better set up factories in Uganda so that you can export processed gold like the necklace I am wearing to India. We have cocoa, which also needs processing instead of exporting it as cocoa beans,” she said.

Ms Anite said with more than 900 registered companies owned by Indians in Uganda, the delegation should explore setting up factories for agro-processing, tourism development, processing of minerals and other service industries.

Mr Upender Singh Rawat, the Indian High Commissioner to Uganda, said bilateral trade between Uganda and India last year hit $1,354.17m (about Shs5.9t) with India exporting goods worth $819.61 (Shs3.2t) and Uganda exporting goods worth $534.17 (Shs2t), making India; Uganda’s significant trade partner.

He said by harnessing complementary resources and market opportunities, both countries could accelerate economic development, building more than just equitable and sustainable communities by leveraging on Indian expertise in sectors such as digital financial platforms, healthcare, vocational education, and renewable energy.

Equity Bank sponsored the delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry to come and prospect business opportunities in Uganda.

Mr Anthony Kituuka, the Equity Bank, managing director, said they believe in improving the lives of the people and expanding opportunities.

“Our vision is to be the champion for social economic transformation of Africa. The current strategy at farmer level in agriculture is adding value and finding a market for the value-added products. We invited about 20 businesses in India in health, agriculture, ICT, telecom and infrastructure to come and invest,” he said.

Mr Kituuka said Equity Bank as a group, has its footprints in Uganda, Kenya Tanzania DR Congo and the delegation can help the bank add value to those countries based on their government’s agenda of modernizing Agriculture, tourism minerals and science, by linking the investors to agricultural and manufacturing industries.

Mr Rahul Mutha, the head of delegation, said this is their third leg of the tour from Malawi, which coincided with a visit by the president of India. He said they visited Zimbabwe before arriving in Uganda on Monday.

“This is the oldest confederation of industries in India and brings together business leaders, entrepreneurs and government to take bold decisions to improve bilateral relations in agro-processing, infrastructure, healthcare, water and sanitation, renewable energy, telecom, finance, legal, defence,  and automobile among other industries,” he said.

He said India is rising as a power in manufacturing and technology and would want to help Uganda to reduce the cost of manufacturing and wastage. He cited agriculture as another area of cooperation where he strongly believes the country can use drones and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve yields.

The investors also expressed interest in deploying generative AI in healthcare and tap partners interested in building hospitals and diagnostics areas.

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