President Museveni has launched a 70 million litre fuel storage facility on Lake Victoria that is set to boost Uganda's fuel security.
The facility owned by Lake Victoria Logistics is located at Bugiri-Bukasa in Wakiso district and has 14 tanks with a collective storage capacity of 70,000,000 liters.
Speaking on Thursday, President Museveni welcomed the new facility.
"This is the time to go into rationalisation and this is part of it by getting fuel off the roads. This is rationalization of the economy as we are now going for the best practices," Museveni said.
"I am happy for this since it will help us, now that it is cheaper than it was(using road transport). Once you have entered market of Uganda ,you are talking of the market of South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC. You have made the best decision."
He pledged government's commitment to ensuring the surrounding road network is improved to ease transportation of fuel from the facility to the market.
Capt Mike Mukula, the chairman of Lake Victoria Logistics said the facility will help in bringing down the cost of fuel in the country.
"This investment will be a major catalyst in reducing cost of doing business in the country since transport is one of the major pushers of high costs. It will reduce cost of transport between Kisumu and Uganda," Mukula said.
Ravi Shankar, the Managing Director for Mahathi Infra said the facility has a 256-meter-long jetty, which facilitates the berthing of vessels, enabling efficient cargo handling but also has two tanker ships each with a cargo capacity of 4. 5 million liters.
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"This facility provides fuel security for the country but also helps reduce strain on the road as fuel is transported on water unlike the conventional way of using trucks which is also more expensive."
The Works and Transport Minister, Gen Katumba Wamala welcomed the new facility and project at large.
"Being land locked we continue to depend on road transport which comes with high maintenance costs, fuel adulteration, traffic congestion, accidents and related non -tariff barriers which lead to delays and increased costs. It is therefore a deliberate government policy to reduce number of trucks which transport oil from Kisumu to Uganda by use of rail and water transport or any other means," Gen Katumba said.
He encouraged private sector to continue investing in water transport.
The Minister for Energy, Ruth Nankabirwa described the facility as a new milestone for Uganda.
"We are making conducive environment for oil marketing companies and our expectation is to see reduced pump prices. If we are reducing transport costs by almost 50%, it should come with affordability on the pump price. Oil marketing companies should not target super profits," Nankabirwa said.
The minister said by transporting fuel on water government is contributing to reduction in carbon emissions.
"It will also reduce on carbon emission for the country. Pollution levels which were being brought about by transportation by trucks will go down."
