KAMPALA – In the drive to improve and foster business growth in the country, the Uganda Investiment Authority ( UIA) (UIA) hosted a preliminary stakeholder engagement on Wednesday January 7, focusing on the development of infrastructure within Kampala Industrial and Business Park commonly refered to as Namanve Industrial Park.
This comes after a year when the Authority launched the three-phase Infrastructure Development Project which is projected to take approximately four years. The initial stage is to set up, involve design studies while the second is construction and the third is the warranty period.
The project is geared towards developing and improving critical infrastructure in the Park, providing access to all critical infrastructure for all park users and providing affordable working spaces for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Uganda.
Addressing the stakeholders, the Owner’s Engineer Dans Aturind said that the aim of the stakeholder engagement was to harness positive influence, mitigate any negative impacts on the project stakeholders, whilst providing access to critical infrastructure for all parties.
“Given the wide range of investment projects and businesses the investors are engaged in, our goal is to provide access to critical infrastructure, which extends to the construction of an integrated road network and bridge, a water supply network, a sewerage network, waste treatment plants, power services, fibre optic services, street lighting, CCTV services, SME work spaces and other amenities (High Pressure Water Hydrants, Gym, Police Station and other services,” Aturinda retorted.
Mr. Joseph Kigunddu, the Director General, UIA noted that the Government, through the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, secured funding from the United Kingdom through United Kingdom Export Finance (UKEF) and entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with United Kingdom-based contractor Lagan Group Ltd. for the development of infrastructure in the industrial park.
Kiggundu stressed that Lagan Dott Namanve are the developers of the infrastructure, and UIA is the “Employer” that is responsible for oversight ,management and supervision roles of the project, adding that the Owner’s -Engineer is a consortium of four firms that include ; Roughton International Ltd., Turner and Townsend International Ltd., Joadah Consult Ltd. and Basic Group Ltd.
With the current employer, it is suggested that 25,484 jobs have been created in the Kampala Industrial Business Park, and that once the industrial park is fully operational, cumulatively, over 200,000 jobs will be created.
In regards to the purpose of the engagement, Mr. Hamza Galiwango, Director of Industrial and Business Parks at UIA revealed that one of their goals is to accelerate industrialization through the serviced industrial Parks, and they are cognizant of the fact that they need to work, not only with the investors within the park, but with the community around the parks, service providers who support the projects within the park and many other stakeholders.
“We are currently in the design studies stage in which we are evaluating the different infrastructure requirements for the park and how to implement the different requirements to meet our investors’ expectations. As we have adopted a mixed implementation model, once studies and designs are approved, we will commence construction. We expect to begin construction of the road network at the end of January 2020. Galiwango said.
He emphasized that they intend to consistently engage their various stakeholders throughout the project to ensure that they are involved in the developments as they happen, and that the project outputs are in line with the requirements of the stakeholders as this was the first in a series of planned engagements.
As the the engagement took shape, a progress report on the development so far was shared and some of the invited stakeholders articulated their experiences with the park and their future expectations.
More so, the preliminary engagement was strictly meant for the investors within the Park, but moving forward they intend to have a series of engagements among which the general public will be invited.
