UIA Director General Robert Mukiza (left) and AmCham Uganda President Mike Davis exchange signed MOU at the event.
The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and the American Chamber of Commerce Uganda (AmCham) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote and facilitate American investment in Uganda.
The agreement aims at creating a favorable climate for economic activity and promoting Uganda as the premier investment destination in Africa for American investors.
UIA Director General, Robert Mukiza, and AmCham’s President, Mike Davis, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organisations.
The MoU will last for five years and will offer opportunities for discussions on topics including policy, investment, subsidies, possible exemptions, local content standards, tax environment, policy implementation and policy review, amongst others.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Director General of UIA, Robert Mukiza said Uganda and America have always enjoyed amicable and investor-friendly relations.
Mukiza said United States is the world’s biggest economy and signing of this MoU will allow us to attract even more Foreign Direct Investment while opening up even greater markets for Ugandan products.
“We have also very deliberately chosen the five-year mark to allow both the investors the chance to identify opportunities across the different sectors and be able to see the beginnings of their return on investment over that period,” Mukiza said.
Mukiza said the focus would be on aggressive and collaborative investment promotion, new story telling of Uganda’s vast investment opportunities, big data exchange and knowledge and technology transfer, amongst others. He said the MoU will be implemented with clear objectives, timelines for actions, key performance indicators and yearly reviews.
According to Mukiza, the five-year length of the MoU is deliberate because both parties want to give investors an opportunity to explore the different investment opportunities in Uganda and see their returns in five years.
President of AmCham Uganda, Mike Davis, said: “The American Chamber of Commerce is very excited to work with the Ugandan Government to ensure that all businesses are well supported in Uganda. We are here to make sure that businesses across the two countries connect and in doing so, that our members are comfortable, supported and trade freely in Uganda”.
Key American investments in Uganda include Citibank, Marsh Insurance and Risk Management, Coca Cola and Willis Towers Watson.
Others are, amongst others, Sombha Solutions Store – a boutique ISP and IT service provider that resells Google and Microsoft products , Jakana Foods – a manufacturer and exporter of agricultural value-added products, including global organic certified products, American Tower Company – a Fortune 500 company that every single person in Uganda relies on, as they provide the telecommunications infrastructure to transmit mobile signals, Agilis Partners – the largest producer of grains and oilseeds in Uganda and Raxio Data Centres – built the first commercial enterprise grade Tier III data center in Uganda.
Davis said first key step in implementing the MoU is to develop inclusion of American investors and professionals directly within UIA discussions – not just at the highest levels including the Presidential Investors Roundtable, but at the board level within UIA and through repeated operational roundtables with UIA staff and AmCham membership.
Both UIA and AmCham have underscored the fact that they both play a vital role in Uganda’s economic transformation and achievement of Vision 2040.
Both parties also look forward to continuously improving the investment climate and making Uganda attractive to American investors, which in turn translates into benefits for the country and her people.
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