Musaazi Namiti
14 May 2008
column
Kampala — Every year, sometimes three times a year, Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) announces the number of projects it has licensed, and new jobs the projects are estimated to create.
On April 22, UIA told reporters at the Media Centre that it had licensed projects worth Shs600 billion in the first quarter of 2008 and the projects are estimate to create 8,225 new jobs.
By the end of 2012, said Mr Maggie Kigozi, the UIA Executive Director, a million jobs will have been created from new investments and re-investments. If this happens, it will be remarkable...because since 1991, when the UIA was created, the 3,026 registered companies it has licensed, out of which 3,010 are operational, have only created 286,457 jobs, according to President Yoweri Museveni in his New Year (2008) address. That raises questions about the projects the UIA licenses.
If indeed it has licensed so many, as figures seem to suggest, why are there few companies operating at the moment? Do the projects take long to be implemented or are they abandoned altogether?
Unemployment is increasing in Uganda and some graduates have had to leave to work in Iraq as security guards. In May 2007, Daily Monitor quoted the labour force flow figures from UIA and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), saying that of the more than 400,000 Ugandans who enter the labour market each year, only about 113,000 are absorbed in formal employment. The rest join the informal sector. The UIA gives the President statistics on what it is doing, but it seems it is reluctant to make the same data available to the public. Journalists trying to access information on how many jobs the licensed projects have created are asked to write a formal letter to Ms Kigozi. The first time I attempted in 2000, I was asked to write a letter.
In 2004, after covering the Presidential Investors Round Table Conference in Entebbe, I tried and was again asked to write a letter. I emailed UIA on March 19 asking for the this information but I have got no reply.
I wanted to see whether the figures from UIA are similar to those in Mr Museveni's New Year address. Reporters are told of the latest figures on the new projects that have been licensed but there hardly anything on the progress of the projects that were licensed, say, 10 years ago, is divulged. Perhaps UIA's website is the best indicator of what it really does. Much of what UIA tells the President and reporters is not even published on their website. The website provides little information for prospective investors and those who want to know what UIA actually does.Under Frequently Asked Questions, one question goes: "Are there any fees or charges required to obtain an Investment Licence?"
Answer: "No. There are no fees charged for the licences, but there are fees charged for registration of your company and some of the secondary licences. The detail is on the web site." But when you click on the "registration of your company" page, you get this message: "The document is not available right now. However, we are aware that you need it and it will be soon provided." Annual reports of organisations like UIA elsewhere say much about what they do and don't do but none of UIA's annual reports is published on the website. Even some words on the website are misspelt.
Ms Kigozi is the longest-serving UIA boss. After John Rubagumya and William Muhairwe, who now heads the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NW&SC).
Therefore she owes Ugandans an explanation, not just about the mediocrity of her organisation's website (and that is assuming she takes time to look at it), but also one about the rampant unemployment despite the thousands of licensed projects that are supposed to create thousands of jobs.
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