Uganda: Stop Fighting Local Investors, Museveni Tells Coffee Farmers

President Museveni has urged coffee farmers to embrace an industrial hub at Rwashamiire and benefit from it.

"As farmers, please don't be tricked by the middlemen because of the very low value and the bigger value taken by foreign groups," Museveni said.

The President was speaking during his tour of coffee entrepreneur Nelson Tugume's Africa Renaissance Chapter One industrial hub in Rwashamiire on Tuesday.

The industrial coffee hub, sitting on over a square-mile of land at Rwashamiire hill, is worth Shs7 billion.

The facility is at 68 percent completion rate in terms of capital investment.

Mr Museveni applauded Tugume for the multibillion investment in Ntungamo and lashed at "enemies of progress" who are fighting the 40-year-old local investor

"I want you to work together with people like Nelson and support someone's idea from scratch and stop fighting people with good ideas." he said.

With 129 parishes in Ntungamo, the district lives to become the first host of a multibillion coffee hub led by Mr Tugume as the vision bearer.

Expected to be the coffee collection and processing hub for not only Uganda but the entire continent of Africa, the hub is hoped to boost and improve coffee prices and products.

In what he termed as the "Africa Renaissance Coffee Chapter One", Tugume, the chief executive of Inspire Africa and Coffee industrial hub, vowed to hit $5 billion from coffee with his establishment of the coffee industrial hub with support of farmers.

"This is a war, but we are determined to fight and hit the target of $5 billion per annum," Tugume noted.

Currently, over 400 people are employed at the facility with just 68 percent of completion.

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