CAPTION: Board Members being briefed at the Uganda Business Facilitation Centre (UBFC) in Kololo.
Kampala, Uganda: Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) will soon be re-locating into the newly constructed Uganda Business Facilitation Centre (UBFC) that is located at plot 1 Baskerville Avenue in Kololo.
The centre is intended to house two other key government-business related institutions that include the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA).
“These government agencies are being brought under one roof in order to boost service provision by enabling them become more effective in serving both local and foreign investors with an overall objective of improving service delivery to the business community,” said the UIA Board Chairman Hon. Dr. Emely Kugonza.
He said this after a guided tour by the Board Members of the facility whose construction was launched on February 1, 2018 and is being implemented by China National Engineering Technology Corporation under a $3m World Bank funding facility.
Completion of the new facility will enable Uganda improve on the measures that are used by the World Bank in ranking countries that include time it takes to start a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors.
“Ultimately, these actions are expected to improve Uganda’s ranking in the ease of doing business which according to the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report, the country is ranked in position 12 in Sub-Saharan Africa behind top performers like Mauritius, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa and Zambia respectively,” said Hon. Kugonza.
He pointed out that Uganda is ranked 116 globally way below its neighbors Rwanda and Kenya ranked 38 and 56 respectively. In East Africa Rwanda and Kenya are the best performers, followed by Uganda.
Others are paying axes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. The UBFC is being undertaken under the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP), as a Government of Uganda project funded by the World Bank and coordinated by the Private Sector Foundation.