Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has listed agriculture, mining and ICT as some of the key areas in which investors would reap billions of dollars in value addition.
“According to the researched figures, a hectare of coffee plantation yields about 3.4 Metric Tonnes , and at an average price of USD1,370 MT, there is a huge processing opportunity of 1.3million MT valued at USD 1.87 billion per year,” said UIA board chairman, Morrison Rwakakamba.
Studies by UIA show average earnings before interest and tax between 33-35% in key export crops; coffee, cotton, cocoa, Maize, banana among others. The average estimated payback is 5 years.
Meanwhile a hectare of Cocoa, as presented by Rwakakamba, has the potential to generate 17.3 million Metric Tonnes at an average price of USD 2,175 per MT of dried cocoa beans, resulting in a processing potential of 1.2 million MT valued at USD 2.64Bn per year.
Rwakakamba spoke at the Uganda-South Africa Trade Summit.
The event attracted delegates from South Africa, Uganda and other countries.
“Establishing fish cage farming in Lake Victoria and L. Albert provides a potential production volume of 18.3 million MT valued at USD 31.8 million,” said Rwakakamba, adding, “Similarly, investment in fish farming provides an import substitution of 86,000 MT of fish feed valued at USD 112.8 million per year.”
Rwakakamba further said sesame has production potential yield of 1.25 MT per hectare and at the market price of USD 1,876 per metric tonne, the processing potential is USD 186 million per year.
“Soya beans have production potential of 2.5 metric tons per hectare at the current price of USD 556 per ton presenting a processing potential of USD 290 million per year,” he added.
“Beans has a production potential yield of 1.8 metric tonnes per hectare at a price of USD 982 per MT of dried beans offering processing potential of 467,000 metric tonnes valued at USD 468 million per year.”
Other lucrative farming areas include milk (USD$6.1bn), maize (USD$2.7bn), Cassava (USD$7.4bn), poultry (USD$26.6m) and rice (USD$2.7bn), according to UIA.
Uganda is keen on attracting foreign investors to add value to its natural resources.
President Museveni recentlyreiterated his call to stop the exportation of raw materials, saying that Uganda was losing a lot of money and jobs.
Mining
In the area of mining, UIA officials say Uganda has over 300 Million Metric Tons of iron ore with the untapped value of USD$15.6Bn, gold untapped reserves of 221 Metric Tons valued USD$3.4bn, Copper, Cobalt and Nickel potential is 6 Million Tons with 100% untapped reserves valued at USD 181 bn.
Rwakakamba said the establishment of an information communication technology (ICT) park, incubation centre, business process outsourcing centre, innovation centre and other ancillary services is a huge investment opportunity in Uganda with average return in excess of 30%.
“Uganda is strategically located in the heart of Africa, and therefore grants immediate access to a large and growing domestic market of nearly 45 million people and an estimated 300 million people in the EAC, including the DRC,” he observed.
Beyond the EAC, through COMESA, officials say investors can access a market of over 700 million people.
Uganda’s ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCTA), which removes barriers to inter and intra Africa trade makes Uganda a perfect launch pad into the wider African market- whose population is 1.3 billion and expected to stretch to 2 billion people by 2050.
According to UIA, Uganda has a competitive tax and non- tax incentive regime which includes a 10-year tax holiday for investors; agriculture sector (both commercial and value addition sector), the developers and operators in the Industrial Parks and manufacturers who export 80% of their production outside the domestic market (i.e. outside the East African Community market.
There are also Import duty exemptions on plant and machinery; 100% allowable expenditure on training; 100% allowable expenditure in research and development; 100% cost recovery on exploration, development and production costs expenditure on mining operations.
The post UIA’s Rwakakamba: Uganda’s Untapped Mineral, Agricultural Potential Worth Over $200bn first appeared on ChimpReports.