By Ben Ssebuguzi
We are always grateful when President Yoweri Museveni is attending various bilateral conferences wowing investors to invest in Uganda. He meets various delegations of investors in the wee hrs of the night explaining to them the benefits of investing in Uganda.
However, it is saddening to learn that Picfare/Nyanza textile, one of the flagship industrialists that we have been proud of are winding up business in Uganda.
The country’s oldest textile factory announced last week that it was winding up in a voluntary cessation that followed shareholders’ meetings on October, 25 and December 2, 2022, with a special resolution passed to appoint CPA Ronald Mutumba as the liquidator.
“Take notice that on October 25, 2022, a special resolution for voluntary winding up Picfare Jinja Limited and the said company ceased to carry on business except for as is required to wind up the company,” reads in part the documents seen by this website.
Yes, it is true that we have free entry and exit in the market but that should not be our lame excuse. We should have a wide entry and minimal exit for our investors. The agency that is responsible for upholding our investors, the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA)might be partly to blame. That is why we request the government to launch an investigation and establish facts.
Did UIA refuse to give them concession rates of import duty of their machinery? Did UIA refuse their drawback of duties payable on imported raw materials? Did they fail to help them waive power tariffs? As youths of Uganda who look up to investors, we need answers from line agencies.
NRM’s number 5 of the NRM 10 Point Program; is “Building an independent, integrated and self-sustaining economy”.
“There is no way that Africans can emancipate themselves from poverty and backwardness without carrying out an industrial revolution. As long as we continue exporting cheap, raw, primary commodities, our present situation will not change (Museveni, 1992: 208).”
In summary, UIA owes us an apology to Ugandans for derailing our government’s strategic plan of transforming our country from a peasantry to a modern and prosperous economy.
Youths of Uganda always look up to investors for jobs and you should help H.E the President for finding modern jobs for Ugandans
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The author; Mr Ben Ssebuguzi is the Secretary general Uganda Poor Youths Movement (UPYM)
Email: ssebuguziben28@gmail.com
