General Overview
Uganda Investment Authority is establishing 23 Industrial & Business Parks and 4 regional Science and Technology Industrial Parks across the Country to create jobs and ease accessibility of land for investments, Introduce new research, technologies and skills development as well as boost Uganda’s exports and therefore increase its revenue base.
The setting up of industrial parks also adds value to locally available raw materials thus boosting the agricultural and mineral sectors.
In addition, new manufacturing and other skills are being acquired by the citizens as well as increasing trade in new products and improving on those already under production. The investors contribute heavily to Uganda’s Tax income through payment of the relevant duties such as VAT, Income Tax and Withholding tax.
Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP), Namanve
The Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) located 11 km East of Kampala, is a 2,200 acre facility located partly in Wakiso (Kira Municipal) and Mukono (Mukono municipal) Districts.
To date, all the land has been allocated to 295 prospective investors for development in various sub-sectors such as agro processing, mineral processing, ICT, t logistics and freight, warehousing, general manufacturing as well as Tourism promotion activities.
Land Allocation Criteria
On 31st March 2009 the UIA Board of Directors approved a pricing Policy for land at KIBP at USD 80,000 per acre. The Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in a letter dated 27th September 2010, agreed with the UIA Board on the price of USD 80,000 per acre.
The companies applying for land have to submit 5 different documents including Registration certificate Investment Licence Business Proposal Evidence of Financing Sketch map of proposed land utilization
These applications are then evaluated under the following criteria:i. Economic Consideration This requires examining the number of jobs to be created, amount of capital investment and the level of export orientation of the project. In addition the tax contribution of the existing company is to be considered.
Financial Capability
This covers the availability of financial resources to implement the project (vide Bank Reference letters) and, for existing investments, appraisal of the financial health of the business.
Environmental Consideration
This takes into consideration the impact of pollution of individual projects.
Technical Assessment
This considers justification for the amount of land applied for. It is achieved by examining the proposed factory layout and the proposed investment in built-up space.
National/Regional Projects
This refers to the importance/impact of the project at the national/ regional level.
Land Payment Schedule
The UIA Board of Directors approved a Land Sales Payment Schedule as follows:
Initial Payment of 10% of lease price of the plot upon signing of the agreement.
Second Payment of 30% of the lease price of the plot, within six (6) months of the date of signing the lease agreement.
Third Payment of 30% of the lease price of the plot, within twelve (12) months of the date of signing of lease agreement.
Final Payment of 30% of the lease price of the plot, within twenty four (24) months of the date of signing of the lease agreement.
Incentives to Attract Strategic Investments into Kampala Industrial and Business Park
According to the approved Pricing Policy, the Government put in place special incentives in order to maximise the benefits of attracting strategic investments into the Kampala Industrial and Business Park.
Government identified four priority sectors namely; Agro processing, Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/Business Process Outsourcing/ (BPO), Mineral Beneficiation and Hotels and Tourism to qualify for fully subsidised land. On 6th November 2009, the UIA Board of Directors approved sub-criteria for the projects in these sectors to access fully subsidized land in the park.
Current Level of Development
Twenty (20) industries are currently in operation within the Kampala Industrial and Business Park directly employing 11,000 Ugandans within the park, Sixty five (65) projects have commenced construction and have created an additional 17,000 indirect short term contract/ technical jobs during this period while 139 industries are still processing their paper work in terms of obtaining the environmental impact assessment certificates, architectural designs, land titling, geotechnical and hydrological studies. These too create employment to the various white collar professionals such as Architects, Environmental Consultants, Civil Engineers; Quantity Surveyors etc.
Up to 71 projects have been newly allocated plots.
Operational Projects
Some of the operational projects include; Roofings Rolling Mills Limited, FOL Logistics, Kyagalanyi Coffee, COMESA Industries, Orion transformers, Interior Technologies, Valley View Estates, Saba Gifco, Opit Investments Ltd, Victoria Seeds, Century Bottling Ltd (Coca Cola), Sunbelt industries, Three Ways Shipping, Kingstone Enterprises, Diamond Trust Bank, Roke Telecom, Saba Gifco Limited, Hanson Eastern Investments, Steel and Tube Industries – Phase 1, Saran Agro, Happy Family Welders, Leaf Tobacco, Alfasan – Farm Support Ltd etc.
Some of the Investors at advanced infrastructure development stages include; Toyota, Mukwano Industries, Kazi Group, Mada Hotels, Office of the Prime Minister, DFCU Bank, Uganda Police, Kampala Modernity Ltd, Tian Tang Industries, Luuka Plastics, while others have commenced development such as Vinci Coffee, Spedag Interfreight, SDV transami, Ntake Bakery, among others.
At Full capacity, this industrial park will become the biggest industrial hub in Uganda with 295 industries directly employing 200,000 Ugandans. The total investment capacity is estimated at 3.5 trillion dollars and the industries in KIBP alone will be contributing over 540 million dollars in taxes per annum at full capacity operation by the year 2021. Already several large tax payers are existent in the Industrial Parks like Coca Cola – USD 26.5 M annually, Roofings Rolling Mills Ltd are paying