On Tuesday, 7th February 2017, the Ministerย of State for Investment and Privatization, Hon.ย Evelyn Anite paid a courtesy visit to the Investorsโย One Stop Center, at UIA. She inspected theย various stalls of the physical One Stop Centreย and requested for a demo of the e-biz on-lineย applications.
Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) is implementingย the Cabinet directive to transform itself into a Oneย Stop Centre for investors. The directive establishedย a set of institutions that must form part of theย start-up phase of the One Stop Centre. Theseย institutions were Uganda Investment Authorityย (UIA), Uganda Registration Services Bureau
(URSB), Ministry of Lands Housing and Urbanย Development (MoLHUD), Uganda Revenueย Authority (URA), National Environmentalย Management Authority (NEMA), Directorateย of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC/Ministry of Internal Affairs), and Kampalaย Capital City Authority (KCCA).
The Uganda National Bureau of Standardsย (UNBS) has since joined these institutions, andย it renders the much desired quality assuranceย and certification services to investors who haveย commenced production.
Cabinet further set the roadmap for establishmentย of an electronic solution to complement theย physical presence at the Investorsโ One Stopย Centre, and this was to set pace for Governmentsย e-Government programme implemented underย the guidance of NITA-U. In June 2015 UIAย procured the services of a Consultant, Norwayย Registers Development AS (NRD) to develop aย web-based solution (the e-biz platform on www.ebiz.go.ug) that would enable on-line services forย the seven Government Agencies named aboveย and any others that may come on board later to
interface electronically.
In July 2015 the Consultant, NRD, embarked onย the assignment and was able to deliver a Minimumย Viable Product (MVP) which was launchedย by Hon. Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere, Minister forย General Duties/Offi ce of the Prime Minister inย January 2016. This was fi rst milestone deliverableย of the Consultant which enabled two services on
the e-biz web portal, namely: (i) Business Nameย Reservation and (ii) Land Title Verification or landย title search as it is commonly known.
The e-Biz platform at UIA is the first Governmentย of Uganda inter-agency system-to-systemย integration, bringing together the functionalityย of select Government systems that relate to theย investment function. Much as it is still work inย progress, there has been some commendableย achievement, and this progress must beย celebrated and sustained.
In December 2016, after committing a lot of funds,ย time, and effort onto delivering the e-Biz solution,ย the following modules were launched:
โข The Business Registration System (BRS)ย to be used by URSB; this is operational atย the URSB head offi ces and their branches.ย The handover of the BRS was witnessed byย Hon. David Bahati โ Min. of State for Planningย (MoFPED); This has brought the processย time for business name registration/companyย incorporation within a day;
โข The land search feature was re-launched andย a new team of expert users was trained, thisย has since gone live, and clients are using it toย verify land titles that are already available onย the digital registers at Lands Registry;
โข The investment licensing feature at UIA wasย launched and a new team of expert usersย trained, this too has since gone live. The resultย is a much shortened cycle for investmentย licensing, that is now well under 48 hours.
โข Testing of the e-biz integration interface to the e-visa system of DCIC was completed on theย test platform, but it has not gone live yet owingย to some final work on the live platform; e-visas/permits/passes can however be accessed
directly through the DCIC e-visa system, already available with the immigration agentsย at the OSC; the renewal of visas, application for special passes and permits now takesย about 3 days only, and could improve if theย approval committees sit more frequently;
โข The Environmental Impact Assessment featureย for NEMA was launched and it has since goneย live; Applications for EIA assessment that areย received electronically, are acknowledged andย quickly escalated through the NEMA hierarchy;ย this has greatly reduced on the processingย times for EIAs since the entire process can nowย be tracked and monitored;
โข The KCCA interface for City Operatorย Identification Number (COIN) was completedย and was successful on the test platform, but itย has not gone live yet owing to final works onย the live platform, involving works on application
of Trading License (TL); when live, both COIN.
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