Dorothy Nakaweesi
6 February 2008
Kampala — A Nigerian billionaire is ready to invest in the construction of a $300 million power generation plant to produce 250 mega watts in Uganda.
Mr Aliko Dangote, the president of the Nigeria-based Dangote Group, has just concluded an investment opportunity search tour to Uganda.
"Power generation is one of the investment opportunities among others that I am ready to inject money into if given permission by the government," he said in an interview.
Mr Dangote, who also visited recently, has held meetings with Mr Patrick Bitature, the chairman and Dr Maggie Kigozi, the executive director of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA).
"Dangote's investment ambition if successfully implemented will go along way in supplementing the on-going $500 million (Shs850 billion) Bugajali power project in curbing the power problem the country is experiencing. This will mean more industries coming up, job creation thus economic development of Uganda," Mr Bitature said.
The investor said some of the factors that are attracting him to invest in Uganda, were the political stability and the fast-growing economy.
The development is a welcome boost to the government's efforts to woo more private investors into the power sector.
However, Mr Dangote said they are also interested in food processing, a crucial industry for the country's export sector. Uganda earns a paltry $1.7 billion (Shs2.8 trillion) from exporting raw commodities such as coffee, fruits and cotton among others.
Yet if value were to be added on the products before export, the earnings would be ten times higher.
In Nigeria, Dangote Group has invested heavily in the flour milling industry with a production capacity of 1 million tonnes of flour per annum. The four mills are currently being restructured for stock exchange listing.
It also has investments in sugar processing with a production capacity of 1.4 million tonnes per year.
The Group imports raw sugar from Brazil and refines it to supply bottling plants and bakeries through a wide network of distributors.
It also runs the Dangote Pasta Plant and three salt refining facilities among several other investments in Nigeria.
The Group also produces polypropylene bags in Nigeria essentially for internal consumption for the packaging of its products - cement, flour, sugar and salt.
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