KAMPALA —Dr. Robert Mwesigwa Rukaari, a national leader, serving on the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the ruling NRM Party as the Chairman Entrepreneurs League has been elected to sit on a 20-member World Chamber Federation General Council that governs the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).
Dr. Mwesigwa who doubles as the president of the Uganda National Chamber of Trade and Investment ((UNCTI) will represent Uganda to the ICC, which is a global network of chambers of commerce from more than 100 countries.
The network has over the last 100 years been mandated with promoting international trade and global regulation of business activity including bringing together the world’s leading companies, SMEs, business associations and local chambers of commerce, as well as representing interests of members at World Trade Organisation, the United Nations and the G20.
A letter of appointment from the ICC called on Uganda’s representative, Dr. Mwesigwa’s support in representing the voice of the global chamber community within the ICC.
Dr. Mwesigwa pledges support to SMEs in Uganda, East Africa and the continent on how to access the support needed to grow.
“I intend to mobilise and be the link to SMEs in Uganda, the region and Africa at large to participate in WCF’s activities which are designed to promote the role SMEs play in the global economy,” he says.
He adds: “that this will be through the programmes I currently oversee, supervising business incubation centres,” Rukaari says, noting that he has for long been an advocate for private sector-led growth and using the WCF platform.
“I intend to continue this advocacy so that private sector players take the lead in the transformation of economies in Africa,” Dr Mwesigwa adds.
The website that has learnt the first meeting for the new WCF General Council will be held between February 12 to 13 2020 in Paris, France at the ICC Headquarters.
UNCTI to whom Mwesigwa is the first president was created in August 2019 as a non-profit autonomous business membership organization that represents and protects interests of the business community in Uganda by supports the development of trade and investment, lobbying for a favourable environment for businesses in the country and promoting Uganda as a preferred national/International business and investment hub.
The new Uganda representative has held several executive positions in the procurement industry in Uganda and internationally, starting out in top management at Swiss Procurement Company (SWIPCO SA), he has been in charge of setting up operations of several procurement firms across Africa, notably SWIPCO SA, Inspection Control Services (ICS) among others.
Dr Rukaari is the board chairman of the Africa Strategic Leadership Centre, a think tank that is at the centre of dialogue on issues affecting Africa as a continent.
Under his leadership, the ASLC has been behind the success of one of Africa’s biggest discussions in 2019, the Africa Now Conference. Dr. Rukaari is passionate about issues of Africa’s youth development.
He has personally been fronting for the private sector to lead in the economic transformation of Uganda.
It is because of his stand on the private sector-led strategy for economic transformation that in June 2019, the Office of the President in Uganda, picked him out to lead the national organising committee of the West Nile Investment Symposium, a dialogue that brought together thousands of delegates from across the world to discuss issues of developing Africa’s Upper Nile Valley to become a business hub.
The dialogue resulted in the setting up of a business incubation centre at Muni University in Northern Uganda and attracted Germany investors to fund a post-harvest handling facility at the university.
