M7 Lauds SA, Calls On Business Community To Invest In Uganda
President Museveni meeting with
President Museveni has hailed South Africa for marshaling both Finance and Engineering capacities and encouraged the Country’s business community to invest in Uganda.
President Yoweri Museveni met a consortium of South African investors on Sunday at his country home in Rwakitura. The group accompanied by a representative of the South African High Commissioner to Uganda was led by Mr. Richard Vries the Executive Officer of Gibb Holdings.
“I thank you so much and I welcome you. African people have been asleep talking about development without electricity. Energy is key to economic growth. All countries in Africa have got very low power except a few like South Africa and Libya. We are determined to see that within Africa there are groups which have the money and engineering capacities. We are happy to have such potential in Africa,” President Museveni told the group.
The group includes a strong pedigree of companies that cover end to end engineering projects in dam construction and a representative of Development Bank of South Africa(DBSA).
“We have about 5 big sites on the Nile; Karuma, Ayago, Oryang, Kiba, Murchison falls, Kalagala and Isimba. Our target is 42000 MW in the next 18 years.There is going to be gas opportunities with oil. I have directed our scientists to investigate the usage of associated gas for power generation.”- President Museveni
Some of their projects include building the biggest dam on the continent on Ngula River in South Africa that will generate 1300 MW, Kabombo Gorge in Zambia, Losuthu Scheme expected to generate 1000 MW, the largest Wind power project on the continent in Kenya, Singida Wind project in Tanzania and operate a 600 MW Kelvin power plant in South Africa.
Mr. Vries informed the President that with Uganda Government’s planned contribution to construction finance, the group will achieve the President’s target of a lower tarriff of 6cts per Kwh. President Museveni created an energy fund a few years ago for which Uganda has been saving that will come in handy in construction of dams in the country.
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