Museveni Warns Against Frustrating Investors

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has appealed to politicians and public servants not to frustrate investors since they are very crucial in Uganda's progressive industrialization agenda. 

Museveni made the appeal on Thursday while commissioning the new Tororo Cement vertical rolling mill plant in Tororo District. He explained that once the investors are welcomed and supported, they will contribute a lot to the development of Uganda. “Don't waste their time. Wasting their time is non-religious, support them so that they move quickly because we have nothing to lose but everything to gain. This factory here is not in India but in Uganda, it is employing our people here, using our electricity, and water, and even if he takes the profits away, it will be only 10 percent of the value of the earnings,” Gen. Museveni noted. 

Museveni commended the Chairman of Tororo Cement Ltd, Hasmukh Kanji Patel, and his team for their enormous contribution towards the economy of Uganda. “That is why we had to go against people like Idi Amin who were ignorant and had chased away these Indians. Why chase the Indians when they were doing better work than many indigenous Ugandans? You have heard what this industry is doing in contributing to our economy,” Museveni said. 

The President also noted that although Tororo Cement Ltd is owned by an Indian, it's now part of Uganda's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). “Ugandans should stop saying Indian factory, no this is not an Indian factory, these factories here are Ugandan factories regardless of who has built them. This is what GDP means. GDP is different from Gross National Product (GNP) which traces the wealth owned by citizens but all these powerful countries in the world are powerful because of bigger GDPs for example the GDP of the United States is 25 Trillion US dollars and much of that GDP is owned by Japanese, Arabs and so on but it gives the power to the USA not to the countries of origin of the investors because this tax money is not going to India but coming to us,” Museveni said.

He added “I'm very glad that Patel came here, and we privatized the other government factory and now he has expanded it. They are going to build another factory in Moroto to do clinker there. Clinker is the primary raw material for cement.”

Museveni also pledged that the government was going to distribute electricity to Katikekire in Moroto and give Tororo Cement Ltd mining rights for limestone to enable them to swiftly do business in the area. On the other hand, Museveni disclosed that the problem of Uganda and Africa as a whole is that years ago they missed the “bus of history” and this has made the continent lag behind economically compared to other continents like Europe. “When the bus of history was moving, Africa stayed on the stage, and it left them. This is because the world has been moving for the last 600 years,” he stressed.

The President however stated that if Ugandans want to catch up with the bus of history, they have to do in a short time what Europe did in about 500 years. “As NRM, we told you and put it in writing in all documents that there are four sectors where you can do this. Sector number one is agriculture. With agriculture, stop working for the stomach only. Work for the stomach but also for the pocket and do so with “ekibaro” (calculation). The second sector is the factories/ industries like this one here. Processing what is produced by agriculture, processing minerals, forest products, processing what is in freshwater bodies like the fish. The third sector is services and the fourth one, is ICT,” the President said.

He also promised the people of Bukedi that the government would get part of its land in the subregion to set up an Industrial Park.

The First Lady Janet Museveni thanked the owners of Tororo Cement Ltd for adding a brick to Uganda's development by investing heavily in the East African country. “This is a significant contribution to the economic development of our people and the nation and I thank you for commenting. She also thanked Chairman Patel and his team for giving back to the community through building and renovating schools and Churches across Uganda.

The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija also lauded the owners of Tororo Cement Ltd for joining the government's crusade of industrializing Uganda. “This enterprise has created 1,500 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs in the country,” he said. 

Patel thanked President Museveni for the support which has enabled their business to succeed for the last 28 years. “As an institution, we have just installed our 25 million US Dollar rolling milling plant which is the most sophisticated mill in East and Central Africa. 

It has got German technology and is producing 150 tonnes of clinker grinding per hour,” Patel said. “By March next year with God's grace, we would have installed a 300-tonne per hour clinker grinder. In total by March, we will be having a grinding capacity of 5 million tonnes per year. The sky is the limit. Within 5 years we shall be having a 5,000 tonne plant in Moroto which will be producing clinker so that we don't have to import the product from Kenya or any other country.   

The function was also attended by the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Monica Musenero, the Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Vincent Bamulangaki Ssempijja, the Minister of State for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite, Members of Parliament, members of the diplomatic corps, religious and cultural leaders, among other officials.