The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and the French Chamber of Commerce Uganda (FCCU) have held a hybrid breakfast meeting on investing and doing business in Uganda.
The meeting, at the UIA headquarters in Kampala, explored many areas such as investment opportunities, why to invest in Uganda, incentives for investors, and policy recommendations to ease investing and doing business in Uganda.
UIA’s acting Deputy Director General, Martin Muhangi, said the UIA-FCCU platform provides Uganda and France with an opportunity to reinforce partnerships in investments for mutual benefits.
Muhangi said in the last ten years, UIA granted 10 licenses to French companies totaling USD5.1 billion in investments and planned to generate 1,333 jobs for Ugandans. These investments are mainly in Agriculture, Transport, Energy, E-mobility, and Digital Technologies.
He said Uganda, with a GDP forecast of 6.7 percent in the medium term, prevailing peace and security, energy and infrastructure upgrades, developments in the oil and gas sector, and full operationalization of the UIA One-Stop Centre, would be a great destination for investment and trade.
“I assure you of UIA’s support and also extend an invitation to the French Chamber of Commerce, alongside their counterparts in Kenya and Tanzania, to collaborate with UIA in promoting investment opportunities across the East African region”, said Muhangi.
The President of the French Chamber of Commerce Uganda, Thomas Pelletier, said they are keen to invest and do business in Uganda by taking advantage of the conducive environment in the country.
Incentives
Molly Alice Dusabe, a Tax Revenue Officer with the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), said:
“To access incentives in Uganda, an Investor must have registered the company with the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, got tax registration with URA, and obtained (for free) an investment license from UIA.
You then write to URA’s Assistant Commissioner of Trade and the Assistant Commissioner for Business Policy requesting for tax exemption for whatever you are importing or want tax waived on in any tax-exempted category. Once approved, you would be exempted from VAT and withholding tax.
Your details will be uploaded on the URA portal https://ura.go.ug URA then writes to you granting the tax exemption. When importing and you reach the Customs, you would present the letters from URA and investment license from UIA and your import would be allowed tax-free.”
Getting a 10-year tax holiday
Dusabe said for an Investor to qualify for a 10-year tax holiday in an exempted sector, one should have filed certified tax/accounts returns for a minimum of three years, be pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) compliant, and have the right employment composition (at least 75 percent of workers should be Ugandans).
URA will then conduct due diligence, including visiting your business premises and checking the working conditions. Once URA is satisfied, the 10-year tax holiday request is approved.
Avoid third parties
Peter Sekajja, a Standards Officer with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, advised the investors to avoid dealing with third parties and not statutory agencies.
“You cannot rely on a third party to help you deal with agencies like UNBS, UIA, UIA, and others who are there to serve you. They (third parties) want it that way because they benefit from it but at your expense.”
Ritah Mugula, UIA’s Deputy Director of Investment Promotion, appealed to all investors to come to UIA and its One-Stop Centre www.ebiz.go.ug as their first point of call when investing in Uganda.
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