East African Business Week

KAMPALA, UGANDA - Manufacturers have asked the government to speed up infrastructure development in the country's industrial parks before they start erecting factories.
The manufacturers' response came as a result of President Museveni's concern that of the 272 investment projects that were offered 995 acres in the Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP) at Namanve on the city outskirts, only two factories, Coca Cola and Roofings have been established.
"The issue of infrastructure development is very important. Manufacturers want to see roads set up, water and power put in place before full commitment," says Mr. Kigozi Ssebaggala the Uganda Manufacturer's Association executive director.
He added that other manufacturers have faced logistical challenges while others are completing paper works with the Uganda Investment Authority.
While conducting a media tour of the park last week, the UIA executive director Dr. Maggie Kigozi explained to reporters that about Ugsh150b ($60m) are needed to develop the necessary infrastructures in the park.
She indicated that subdivision of the park is complete and other social and environment issues are being worked upon.
On the other side, the development of this park could have hit a snag after the World Bank and the Finance Ministry failed to provide funds for its completion.
The park has a planned investment of $2.9b (Ugs7.250 trillion) and job creation capacity of over 70,000 jobs.
The infrastructure development is targeted at $200m (Ugs500b), though some projects were hiked leading to the frustration of the World Bank, the key funders of the project.
This was after the Finance Ministry asked the Auditor General to carry out a value-for-money audit to ascertain why a revised contract had raised the cost of the project by over 300%.
 The Finance Ministry refused to pay the contractor, Spencon Services, who built the UIA's office block, citing inflation of costs from the original Ush790m ($338,000) to Ush2b ($900,000).
It also led to the Members of the Ugandan Parliament on the statutory committee to recommend the suspension of the project until further notice.
"The Ministry of Finance has failed to pay the balance of Ush2.3b ($1m) to the contractor who was hired for the first project. UIA raised the cost of the first project by 300%. With the financial mess, there is no way you should continue with the project," committee chairperson Mr. Reagan Okumu told Uganda Investment Authority executives who were appearing before it recently.
Kigozi said UIA has completed the review of the master plan, detailed engineering designs and tender documents for South A estate, draft detailed engineering designs and tender documents for South B estate and completed preliminary engineering designs for North and South C estates.
despite impressive statistics being released every month real job creation is still a long way and skeptics feel the country has not gone far enough in attracting investment which would result in job creation and taxes for the government.