East African Talks

Over the last couple of weeks i have had the pleasure of meeting with 2 of East Africa’s leaders. Both President Museveni of Uganda and President Nkurunziza of Burundi were in London for the British hosted Somali talks.

CBC hosted President Museveni for lunch where he Launched Uganda’s new tourism initiative and discussed the business and investment climate in Uganda. The President spoke with a great deal of authority on many issues affecting Uganda and made a strong impression on the business leaders gathered for the Lunch. His views and plans to ensure Uganda’s newly discovered natural resources are a boon for the whole of Ugandan society was particularly interesting.

The following day I held talks with President Nkurunziza of Burundi. I don’t know Burundi as well as the other EAC countries as it is not yet a Commonwealth Member. However I was pleased to hear from the President that his country has begun the office petitioning process to join the Commonwealth. In many ways echoing President Kagame before Rwanda joined, President Nkurunziza spoke of the importance of connecting his country’s businesses more fully with the English speaking world, and explained how he has already made English the main language in schools. I offered the President CBC’s services in helping link up Burundi with Commonwealth Investors and businesses.

Burundi joining the Commonwealth will make the EAC a Commonwealth Exclusive Club, this I feel will help bind the Union together and make in a strong investment and business destination.

CBC hopes to return to East Africa in early 2013 to hold its flagship Africa Event the Africa Investment Forum in Kampala Uganda; both Presidents were supportive of the plan.

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.