KAMPALA SERENA HOTEL – President Yoweri Museveni has for first time admitted that the cost of doing business is still high in Uganda.
Mr. Museveni was addressing the country on Thursday afternoon at the Serena Conference Centre in Capital Kampala.
He said that to address this challenge that has since chased away both local and foreign investors, the government will continue to prioritize infrastructure investment in energy, transport, water, and ICT.
He said that over the last one year, a total of 206.6MW was added to the power generation system in abid to stabilize industrial power for manufacturers.
Of the new capacity, he noted that the 183MW was from Isimba Hydropower Project commissioned on 21st March, 2019
The head of state also noted that by time Isimba Dam was commissioned, Karuma was 93% complete and that it is scheduled to be completed by the end of December 2019.
Others powers he mentioned include Agago, Muzizi, Nyagak III.
When all these are completed, he said “our generation capacity will stand at 2,300mgws.”
Mr. Museveni said that Uganda is targeting over 17,000mgws.
He also opportunistic that the modernization of the railway system by building the Standard Gauge Railway will bring down the cost of transport per 40ft container from US$3,456 by road to US$1,800per container using the Standard Gauge railway.
Even by repairing the old meter gauge railway, he told the country that the cost of transport will down to US$2,016.