UIA Investments (1995-2003): Some Highlights
Eng. Dr. Paul Sagala
Phantom Solutions, Ltd
Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has been active in the national effort to attract
particularly foreign direct investment (FDI). All data is supplied by courtesy of UIA. The
global 'projected' investment picture over the
'10-Year' period manifests the following highlights:
Top sectors:
- Manufacturing (over US$ 1.1 billion);
- Mining and quarrying (over US$ 800 million);
- Water and energy (over US$ 680 million);
- Real Estate (over US$ 600 million).
These are further manifested in the ensuing chart.
Top anticipated individual investments were:
- Mining and production of fertilizers in 2002 for over US$ 500 million;
- Generation of hydropower at US$ 400 million;
- Palm oil farming and manufacture of edible oil at over US$ 110 million;
- An industrial estate development at over US$ 100 million; and,
- Cobalt extraction at US$ 100 million.
Periods / calendar years with highest investments are:
- 2002 with over US$ 900 million;
- 1996 with over US$ 750 million;
- 1995 with over US$ 650 million; and,
- 1999 with over US$ 600 million.
Total anticipated investments over the entire period, 1995 - 2003 stood at nearly US$ 4.9
billion (US$4,900,000,000), accumulated over the years. Save for professional services where
investment commenced in the year 2000, others started in 1995 for the period under review,
with most sectors having investment every year.
While there were over 1800 investments in all sectors, nearly 800 were in manufacturing
alone, with a dominance of over 1750 in the US$ 0 - 5 million band.
Number of Investments in Manufacturing
Specifically, the distribution of investments by size in manufacturing show nearly 50%
falling under US$ 0.5 million, followed closely by 23% in the US$ 0.5 - 1.0 million band. At
or above US$ 20 million, individual investments total only seven (7), the highest being US$
3.6 million.
Employment
Two features are examined, namely, frequencies number categories occur, and actual numbers
of employees.
Frequency
By far, the dominant category is that for 'up to 500 employees' at
over 1700 out of a total of over 1800, followed in a small measure by 501 - 1000 category at
under 50 occurences.
Numbers
Numbers Regarding numbers, manufacturing continues to dominate all other sectors, with
over 50,000 out of about 150,000, followed by agriculture at over 33,000, slightly over 20%
of overall employment generated in the years in question.
