THE Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), a body responsible for attracting and licensing investors in Uganda, on January 16 awarded the best investors for the year 2008, with Warid Telecom emerging the winner.
Guests at the evening colorful ceremony held at the Kampala-based luxurious Africana Hotel witnessed JOMAYI Property Consultants, a company owned by a Ugandan, beating 25 investors to the first run-up position.
JOMAYI, which is owned by Mr. Joseph Yiga Magandaazi, scooped UIA’s 2008 silver award. Also licensed in 2006, JOMAYI invested $33m in real estate development, employing over 150 Ugandans.
The company which is marketed in the diaspora y the Promota Media (UK) was credited for assisting Ugandans in the Diaspora to own property, especially land and buildings, in Uganda.
Tukahiirwe praised JOMAYI for constructing bravura houses for a number of Ugandans living abroad, saving them from being duped by unscrupulous friends and relatives. In this way, UIA added, the company has earned Uganda foreign exchange.
Besides its policy of allocating one third of the total land as compensation to squatters, JOMAYI was also commended for building schools, health centres and planting trees among other corporate social responsibility activities, UIA added.
Sameer Agriculture and Livestock Limited, a dairy company which last year added milk powder to its several milk products, trailed JOMAYI as the second best run-up, and won a Bronze award.
The internationally recognized awards, said President Yoweri Museveni, illustrate that the investors make their business environment more transparent and accountable.
In a speech read by finance minister Ezra Suruma, the president commended the investors, both local and foreign, ‘for putting their money in Uganda.’ He assured them of Government support.
“I congratulate the winners. You have demonstrated sterling practices that should be emulated not just by companies in Uganda but across the region,” he said.
Emphasizing the need for value-added, Museveni pledged Government’s commitment to promote a favorable climate for adequate investments in education. This, he held, would boost scientific knowledge and technology in the country.
The president assured investors of a wider market once COMESA launches its Customs Union in December.
The awards ceremony that was launched in 1994 is held yearly to recognize the contribution of various investors to Uganda’s development.
This year’s theme for the awards was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a strategy that UIA chairman Mr. Patrick Bitature urged all investors to take up.
Bitature also briefed the guests about Uganda’s investment performance in 2008, observing that it was ‘generally good.’ In 2008, he said, UIA licensed 350 projects, with a planned investment value of $2.4b, and projected to create 48,805 jobs.
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