NEWS– The Chairman of Uganda Investment Authority Morrison Rwakakamba’s statutory tenure at Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), will in May 2024 come to an end in line with the provisions of the Investment Code 2019.
During his term of office as the Chairman at Uganda Investment Authority, Rwakakamba steered the organisation with State House and Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development to organize countrywide Presidential Investor’s Conferences targeting 4 sectors of the economy that include Commercial Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services and ICT.
According to Uganda Investment Authority, during the term of office, Rwakakamba also initiated collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Uganda Missions Abroad to enhance Uganda’s strategic position as a high potential investment destination of choice preferred by foreign investors.
It should be remembered that in line with the Presidential Directive to establish 25 industrial parks, Rwakakamba’s stewardship ensured that Uganda Investment Authority mobilized over 80 square miles of land across the country. In the Kampala Industrial Business Park, Namanve, there were 21 factories in 2016 but currently there are 190 functional factories, 165 are under construction and 85 were in pre-start phase as of February 2024.
According to sources at Uganda Investment Authority, ever since Rwakakamba took over office, the number of licenced investment projects grew by 58.7% from 395 projects in the financial year 2020/21 to 627 in 2021/22 and the value of planned investments registered 182.5 increase from US 1.86 billion dollars in 2020/21 to US 5.27 billion dollars during the year 2021/22.
When the media published a performance ranking of government agencies on September 16th 2022, Uganda Investment Authority was ranked among the top performers with a score of 83.4%.
Additionally in the first quarter of the Financial Year 2022/2023, Uganda Investment Authority licensed US 3 billion dollars as opposed to US 485 million dollars in the same period the previous year and the main reason for this improved efficiency is the increased performance of 8 investment promotion activities which have raised awareness among Ugandan investors.
During the time Rwakakamba has been at the helm of Uganda Investment Authority as Chairman, there have further improvements in indicators such as manufacturing value added (MVA) as a share of GDP from 8.3% in 2017/18 to 15.5% in 2021/22 and a share of manufacturing in Industrial GDP from 15.4% to 16.5% over the same period.
According the Africa Industrialization Index of 2022, Uganda registered a significant boost in its performance in the period of 2010 to 2021 and Uganda moved 5 places up from 25th position in 2010 to 20th position in 2021.
Since Rwakakamba took over office, Uganda Investment Authority focused on domestic investment, first with the establishment of Domestic Investment Directorate and nationwide Investment Summits aimed at engaging local investors and these summits were held as Kigezi Investment Aummit, Arua Presidential Round Table.
There were also International Summits that targeted foreign investors that included Uganda – European Business Forum, Lohana Afro Indian Investment Summit, South Africa – Uganda Investment Summit, Somalia – Uganda Investment Summit, Turkey-Uganda Investment Summit, Expo Dubai Investment Summit, East African Business Forum, Japan Business Forum and Non Aligned Movement Business Summit among many others.
It’s from these fore mentioned areas of success, that Uganda received Go Global Award in Rhodes Island USA in November 2023 where Uganda Investment Authority was given award for the greatest investment catalyst in the World, and during the Africa Risk Reward Index 2023 Oxford Economics that took place in September 2023, Uganda was recognized as the most attractive economy to invest in within the East African Community.
It should also be noted that in May 2023, during the Annual Investment Meeting in Abu Dhabi, Uganda Investment Authority was recognized with the golden Award for attracting the best investment projects in East Africa in 2022 and in December 2023, the African Development Bank recognized Uganda among the top 10 countries for industrial development.
