29 Apr Interview with Zaake W Kibedi, Ambassador of Uganda to the UAE
How strong is the relationship between Uganda and the UAE, are the two countries currently working on any cooperation agreements and how successful was your participation in Expo 2020 Dubai?
I am Ambassador of Uganda to the UAE, but also the Permanent Representative of Uganda to the International Renewable Energy Agency. I’ve been in this position since November 2018 and, before that, I was based in Denmark for five years as the Ambassador of Uganda to the Nordic countries, where I covered five countries: Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden.
The three years I’ve been here in the UAE have been quite interesting. The bilateral relations between Uganda and the UAE are growing from strength to strength. During my stay here, I’ve witnessed the signing of two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) between the UAE and Uganda. The first MoU was signed in February 2019 and related to economic cooperation. On June 26, 2019, we signed a second MoU on labour cooperation. And a month before I arrived, we had signed a MoU on agricultural cooperation.
During Expo 2020 Dubai, discussions and negotiations have been ongoing for three MoUs: on avoidance of double taxation, on protection of investments and also on information and technology cooperation and collaboration, because the UAE has positioned itself as one of the successful countries in artificial intelligence and innovation in general. At the bilateral level, this is what we have achieved and we expect more MoUs to be signed because, after our participation at the Expo, a lot of engagements have taken place between government and government, government and businesses, and also businesses and businesses. This will definitely result in some additional MoUs.
We also want to update a MoU on aviation cooperation because, at the beginning of the Expo, Uganda Airlines started flying to the UAE. We were the first African country to celebrate our national day at the Expo—the Expo opened on October 1 and we celebrated our national day on October 2. On October 4, flights from Uganda Airlines started at a rate of four days a week, but we are negotiating to get more slots to fly every day. During the period of the Expo, another airline, Air Arabia, started flying from Sharjah directly to Uganda. It was a further achievement in that first week of the Expo. Currently, there are five weekly direct flights from Dubai with Emirates, two daily flights with Fly Dubai, and then we have Air Arabia operating daily flights from Sharjah and now Uganda Airlines.
That is how far we have progressed at the bilateral level. The Expo has also enhanced the trade portfolio between Uganda and the UAE because, by September 2021, foreign direct investment (FDI) was about $950 million from the UAE to Uganda. But as of now, commitments that have been signed will lead, if actualised, to FDI increasing up to $4 billion.
To give you a few examples, Masdar Clean Energy is now negotiating with the Ministry of Energy in Uganda on a deal worth about $3 billion to be invested over a span of four years. We expect to conclude this deal very soon. ADNOC is in negotiations with Uganda National Oil Company. They are also about to conclude negotiations for the signing of a MoU to cooperate on the downstream trading of bulk petroleum products at the international level, and there are prospects of technical cooperation for mutual benefit. The investment and trade value combined of this cooperation will be over $1 billion.
AMEA Power is going to invest about $200 million in renewable power and will set up a 20MW solar plant in the north west of Uganda and a 200MW hybrid solar and wind plant in Karamoja, which will generate 80MW through solar by day and 120MW from wind during the night.
There is another company in Ras Al Khaimah called STREIT Group that is setting up an armoured manufacturing factory in Uganda to serve the markets of Uganda, the East African region and also sub-Saharan Africa. Construction has started and next month, most probably, its project will be commissioned by none other than our head of state.
There is a further interesting company, Elite Agro, an Abu Dhabi based company that is a subsidiary of Yas Holding and which is one of the leading producers and distributors of fresh vegetables and fruits in the region. It is going to invest in agricultural production and agro-processing in Uganda. It is starting by setting up seven tea-processing factories and will also invest in coffee, Kisoro potatoes, which are known as Irish potatoes as well, and rice processing. Over four years, it will invest at least $500 million.
There are so many companies, but I will conclude with one called Group 42, a company manufacturing vaccines in the UAE. It is negotiating a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology in Uganda. It is going to set up a $50 million plant to manufacture vaccines for different diseases, including Covid-19.
Besides investments, our trade portfolio has increased: in September last year, it was at $1.5 billion and, by March 2022, it had grown to $2.5 billion. Remittances have increased too. Before the Expo, there were around 60,000 Ugandans working here in the UAE and they were remitting about $200 million annually. But, by the end of March this year, remittances had increased by $50 million, meaning that — maybe during the Expo — more Ugandans got jobs here or got better paid jobs. That has been another achievement.
For Uganda, our participation in the Expo has been extremely successful and we are happy that it is going to speed up our economy and help it to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Uganda is a young population—it is the world’s second youngest after Niger. When these opportunities come to Uganda, they create employment opportunities for our young people, which we look at as an asset. So, overall, our participation at the Expo has been a very interesting six months.
Could you explain some of the elements of Uganda’s strategy for economic development?
Under our Vision 2040 plan, Uganda is working towards becoming an upper-middle-class country by 2040. One of the areas that we want to base that on is industrialisation and that must be premised on our economic backbone, which is agriculture. When we get investments in agriculture, agro-processing and commercialised agriculture, this will create many industries and jobs, and it will also attract other related industries.
The National Development Plan (NPD) that is currently being executed in Uganda is the third of six NDPs for delivering the aspirations of the Uganda Vision 2040 and each NDP covers five years. Some of the priority sectors in this third plan are agriculture, health, energy, infrastructure, tourism and education. The specific investments I mentioned earlier follow the priorities of Uganda. That’s why the government and all the other key stakeholders have been working towards effective and efficient facilitation of the processes to attract investments to promote those sectors and also tourism.
As you may know, after his tour of the continent of Africa in 1901, Winston Churchill concluded by saying that Uganda is the Pearl of Africa: it is gifted by nature. We have also been taking this God-given opportunity of the Expo to promote tourism: first of all, we have been highlighting that Uganda is a destination where Arabs can go for holidays during their hot season because, from June to September, Uganda’s weather always ranges between 18°C and 25°C and, on average, the temperature is about 22-23°C. We’ve been promoting travelling to Uganda during that period, both for doing business, but also for enjoying a wide range of different activities such as safari experiences (we have over seven national parks), mountain gorilla trekking, chimpanzee trekking, river cruises, water rafting and action-adventure activities.
We are also developing a unique concept of tourism, which is known as agro-community tourism. We noticed that, in western and even in emerging countries, most people aged 60 downwards have never experienced living in rural areas. We want to attract this category of people and their families to come and stay within our communities, to participate in their daily farming and community activities, to take part in milking or agriculture production, growing organic food and then eating what has been produced. That’s why, during the Expo, we launched what we called “Explore Uganda”. The CEO of the Uganda Tourism Board and the Minister for Tourism were here and we had road shows within the seven emirates of the UAE.
Among others, those are the areas we are focusing on to recover from the effects of the pandemic: tourism, agriculture, infrastructure, energy, innovation, health and education.
The theme of Uganda’s pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai was “Right Place, Right Time”. Uganda is a land of opportunities and has a lot of resources. If you had to summarise why an investor from the Gulf Cooperation Council region in general, but particularly from the UAE, should come to Uganda now, what would be your response?
When you come and invest in Uganda, you have access to about six or seven direct markets. One, of course, is the Ugandan market. Its population is around 45 million and the number of middle-class people is growing: they are now estimated to account for between 7 per cent and 9 per cent of the population, which adds up to around 4 million people. That is already a good number of people to market to. But, in addition, we are members of the East African Community, which has a population of 280 million people. We are working towards making Uganda not only an investment hub for the region, but also an agriculture production hub.
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology is also investing in many areas of technology to make it a very efficient country for communication and information — meaning that, once you are investing in Uganda, you can use these different innovations that are being implemented to operate within the whole region.
As members of the East African Community, there are no barriers to trade in the region due to a single-window economic system and customs union. Now, we have seven member states in the community. Originally, it was Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, later on Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan joined, and, just last week, there was a summit of the heads of state of the community and they accepted the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as a new member. Uganda is supporting the construction of roads in Western Congo, as DRC is so huge that some infrastructure development programmes haven’t reached the far limits of its border. DRC is now the number-three export destination for Ugandan products and we are investing in that.
So, you have the Ugandan market and the East African Community market, but we are members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as well. There are 19 member states in COMESA with a combined population of 400 million people. Uganda is also among the 54 states of Africa that have ratified the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is the world’s second-largest trade area — after the World Trade Organization — in terms of member countries. When Uganda’s Prime Minister was in the UAE for the last activities of the Expo, she met with the management and chairman of Lulu Group International, which is operating in Uganda. We learnt that what it is exporting from Uganda is also being exported within Africa — it is a good example of an investor that is benefitting from AfCFTA.
Apart from those four markets, Uganda has an agreement with the European Economic Area and, under this agreement, can export everything except arms to Europe without any restrictions. Lastly, under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), Uganda can produce and export over 600 products to the US without hindrances. That’s why Uganda is the right place at the right time for investors. You may find that Ugandans are also trying to seize these opportunities, but they face some limitations in technology, capital or market access. If you come and operate from Uganda, it helps ensure that you are benefitting from these markets.
In addition, it should be taken into account that every Ugandan speaks English and that many young people have graduated from one of the 57 universities in the country, as free education for primary and secondary levels was introduced 20 years ago. Uganda is also the right place because, while some countries with older populations have started having to use expensive robots to do certain jobs, in Uganda you have a young workforce that is well educated.
Regarding agriculture and weather, Uganda has two rainy seasons of three months each, which allows for two good planting seasons. Another positive attribute is the peace and stability in the country — for the last 35 years, Uganda has been one of the most peaceful countries on the African continent. As we are land locked, we cooperate closely with our neighbouring countries to ensure that there is peace within the region, because if there is instability in the neighbourhood, problems come. When there was war in South Sudan, we had over 1 million refugees coming to Uganda, for example.
In summary, we believe Uganda is the right place at the right time for those reasons: the market, labour force, weather, peace and security.
Do you have any final message for our readers?
Our mission was established in the UAE in 2009 and its core mandate is to promote economic and commercial diplomacy. I would like to mention to prospective investors who are focusing on Africa that we are here to facilitate their interest. We want to be a bridge between their interest and Uganda as destination—we are here to help them and to take them directly to the relevant authorities. The way we promote our economic and commercial diplomacy at the Embassy of Uganda in the UAE is not only related to your initial investment in Uganda: when you get to the country, we keep following you and, if you find any challenges, we can come in and contact the necessary authorities — whether that be the Uganda Investment Authority, the Tax Authority or another body — to make sure that the achievement of investment opportunities and business opportunities in general is a seamless process. Our doors are open to support whoever is interested in bringing business to Uganda.
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