Minister Anite pressure mounts at UIA as Mukiza’s deputy throws in towel
By Evans Najuna
The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) Deputy Director Dr. Kyalimpa Paul has thrown in the towel months after the infamous honoraria saga.
When minister Evelyne Anite burst the bubble, Kyalimpa went on to issue a threatening notice with intentions to sue his political boss over a defamatory statement she published via X ( formerly Twitter).
According to this list Anite, Dr. Kyalimpa was the second beneficiary of the sh545m honoraria following Robert Mukiza who took a lion’s share of sh82m, while his deputy Dr Paul Kyalimpa got Shs58m.
Kyalimpa who is in the USA for further studies has now released a sort of handover report detailing his time at UIA.
In this report, Kyalimpa who addressed himself as a UPM/NRA/NRM Historical and National mobiliser, a Nalubaale Medalist, Honorary Mayor and Business and Leadership Fellow listed quite number of achievements ever since he was appointed as the Deputy Director General of Uganda Investment Authority on 24th November, 2020.
“I was interviewed by the Public Service Commission and found competent before being appointed as a Deputy Director General (DDG) of Uganda Investment Authority (UIA). I commenced work on 2nd January, 2021 with Mzee Byensi Bakairwa Lawrence who was the Acting Director General then, following some period of leadership instability at UIA,” he says in the report.
Kyalimpa goes on to outline key achievements accredited to his team leadership at UIA.
“During my tenure as DDG, I have made outstanding contributions to UIA. When I joined UIA in January 2021, I set four targets to achieve with the UIA leadership team. The four targets were: i) streamlining strategy, policy and management systems and procedures; ii) improving staff welfare; iii) improving effectiveness and efficiency in delivery of investor-centred services to double the value of both domestic and foreign direct investments and, iv) improving resource envelope to better deliver on UIA mandate. I would like to report that under the leadership and support of the Ministers, the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the treasury and the UIA Board, the following has been achieved, in the four areas of my targets as second in command investment chief.”
According to Kyalimpa, his first assignment as a Deputy Director General incharge of technical directorates was streamlining strategy, policy and management systems and procedures.
That in the first six months, he reviewed and approved a performance-based strategic plan, human resource policy and established results-based planning and performance targets for all directorates. He says this created institutional stability and hope in staff, with focus on results.
“The strategy and clear results framework has guided UIA investment agenda in attracting and facilitating high value and targeted investors to Uganda and has earned Uganda the award of the best investment destination in East Africa and Africa in the last two years respectively.”
The second achievement was about improving staffing and staff welfare to deliver on UIA mandate
He says when he reported at UIA on 2nd January, 2021, many of the staff worked up to 1:00pm and went back home for lunch and others returned at 3:00pm to office since they would move out of office to look for lunch. Some staff would have popcorn and dry tea for both break-tea and lunch. Why all this? He says there was no provision of lunch at the workplace and lunch allowance was rarely paid out due to limited budget releases from the government. Also the staff salaries were very low, compared to all agencies and a few staff were able to make savings at the end of the month to afford lunch. This was exacerbated by staff work overload due to limited staffing and depleted fleet.
To his credit, he provided leadership for resource mobilisation for staff recruitment and staff welfare from the Ministry of Finance, with support of then Acting Director General, Mzee Byensi Lawrence and the Board Chairman, Dr. Emily Kugonza.
“Today, UIA staff are provided with lunch at work place, earn fairly competitive salaries and gratuity, have procured brand new vehicles to reach-out investors and promote Uganda as a preferred investment destination in Africa and the world. A new staff establishment was approved by the Board and additional staff have been recruited. The UIA staff are highly motivated, hardworking and effectively represent Uganda as a competitive brand,” he boasts.
The third area of his achievements was about improving effectiveness and efficiency in delivery of investor-centred services to double the value of both domestic and foreign direct investments
He is said to have spearheaded resource mobilisation from the Ministry of Finance and partnership with USAID to support preparation of regional investment profiles to aid preparation of compendium investment opportunities every year as well as preparation of bankable projects for both domestic foreign investors.
“The profiles are and bankable projects are used to promote investment opportunities in Uganda and are accessible on the UIA website www.ugandainvest.go.ug under the link ‘investment opportunities’ ”.
With guidance and support from Mzee Hon. Alhaji Moses Kigongo, the Vice-Chairman of NRM, he says UIA engaged the KACITA group and arcade owners to take up opportunities provided by the government in the form of free land and tax incentives to become industrialists.
And to his credit, over 60% of operators in the industrial parks are local investors, most of whom were (and some are) traders and arcade owners.
As a supervisor of the SME Division, with support of Madam Winnie Lawoko-Olwe, Kyalimpa developed a strategy after a two days retreat that transformed the SME division to a Domestic Investment Division.
Today, he says the division is very vibrant with transforming SMEs to large domestic investors and creating linkages between local investors and foreign investors.
The Domestic Investment Division also supports profiling of SMEs to the national SME portal platform https://mybusiness.go.ug for access to business partners, affordable finance, market, business development service providers among others.
With a presidential directive to improve efficiency in investor support services, in May, 2021, Kyalimpa says he led a team of One Stop Centre (OSC) under Mr. Kigundu Joseph to create an efficient UIA structure and on-line system where investors can easily apply and a team at UIA are able to review the investor licensing application and approve it within less than eight (8) hours.
“Today, we have an efficient investor service team for timely response to investor inquiries and investment licensing from 48 hours in 2021 to 24 hours in 2022, and today, taking two (2) hours; when the investor submits all the basic required information to the investment licensing on-line platform https://www.ebiz.go.ug.”
Kyalimpa also boasts of improving resource envelope to better deliver on UIA mandate
To finance the above three targets, he provided leadership with support of management and the Board and obtained funding from the Ministry of Finance, planning and Economic Development which has increased the UIA budget, including direct financing of projects by the Ministry of Finance. The staff welfare, better salaries, increased staffing, new vehicle fleet as well as financing of infrastructure in industrial parks is credited to the government of Uganda for increased financing to UIA.
“I lobbied for project based financing from UAID Economic Activity Program to support establishment of the National SME-portal as well as creating profiles of domestic investors and regional profiling and development of value chains to promote domestic investment and attract foreign investors. The profiles facilitate visibility and marketability of local investments,” he concludes.
It is imperative to remember that, Kyalimpa on July 9 furiously defended this honorarium that it was given to them legally after they were assigned additional roles in the KIBP project.
According to Kyalimpa, they indeed saved the taxpayers Shs5.9b.
The issue of this controversial sh545m honoraria award, has since split UIA’s holy trinity relationship between line minister Evelyn Anite, UIA Board Chairman Morrison Rwakakamba and the Director General of UIA Robert Mukiza—who previously worked as team.
It is not clear who could be next to exit Plot 1, Baskerville Avenue, Kololo, Kampala based UIA head offices.
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