The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga has tipped a South African based company; International Service Group (ISG) which is seeking investment opportunities in Uganda to interest itself in the mining sector.
Kadaga said Uganda enjoys a variety of minerals spread across the country but that the citizens who are engaged in the mining sector lack competence in exploration.
“This country has many minerals but not many Ugandans can afford exploration. That is the area where we need support and the eventual development of the industry,” said Kadaga.
The Speaker made the remarks during a meeting with ISG, Rocketme Agri Farm and the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Vincent Ssempijja on Wednesday, 5 November 2020 at Parliament.
Kadaga said besides the mining sector, ISG’s funding would be more efficacious in value addition for agricultural products. She gave an example of Busoga sub-region which she said has been producing sugarcane only for sugar, yet several other products could be generated out of the canes.
“We know that sugarcane has many by-products such as cane syrup, ethanol, so you can help us in value addition” said Kadaga adding that “we also need more mills and incubators for making more by-products”
The ISG representative, Rene Brauner, told Kadaga that ISG is coming to Uganda to support sectors that the government deems critical for development, adding that his firm has, for instance, ear marked the agriculture and education sectors where they intend to boost infrastructure and service delivery.
“We want to support food production and road construction. We are also passionate about the education sector,” said Brauner.
Minister Ssempijja asked ISG to consider supporting Uganda with an inland port that would link Uganda to the Kisumu Port in Kenya, which Brauner said was possible as ISG is funding a similar project in South Africa.
Speaker Kadaga requested that ISG’s funding be channeled towards the development of a port in Jinja district and the Bukasa Inland Port in Kampala.
