Ugandan Infrastructure and FDI

I was very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with HE Yoweri Museveni the President of Uganda last weekend while he was passing though the UK on the way to New York. President Museveni hosted CHOGM and Commonwealth Business Forum in 2007, it was good to catch up and talk.

A couple of Points he raised were of particular interest;

1)
Firstly, Uganda is re-prioritising reducing the Infrastructure gap as quickly as possible. A renewed focus on building and renovating, roads, rail, ports and especially power generation and delivery will remove one of the largest hurdles to development and growth.

2)
The Second point was perhaps the more pertinent; President Museveni made it clear that while he will more than welcome Foreign Direct Investment, the Ugandan Government was prepared to pursue large Infrastructure projects alone. The Financial crisis has made accessing traditional sources of funding harder than ever before, and with the discovery of oil in the Lake Alberta region earlier this year; Uganda now has a greater confidence that it can find its own solutions to its infrastructure issues.

The government is continuously increasing its allocation for infrastructure projects in annual budgets, this is good news. Uganda and other African countries are becoming more confident in shaping their future, similar sentiments were expressed by the Presidents of Ghana and Rwanda when I met them recently.