Business
Uganda: Planned investment triples in first quarter of 2012
(Reuters) – Planned investment in Uganda more than tripled in the first quarter of this year from the preceding three months, buoyed by increasing interest in the country’s energy sector, a state agency said on Wednesday.
Poised to be a top-50 crude oil producer, the economy of Uganda is forecast to grow at 5.4 percent in the 2012/2013 (July-June) fiscal year, fueled by investments in infrastructure and energy, according to the finance ministry.
It is expected to expand at a rate of 5 percent this fiscal year, from 6.3 pct for the fiscal year 2010/2011.
Patrick Bitature, chairman of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), said east Africa’s third biggest economy recorded planned investments worth US$806 million between January and March compared with US$223.3 million in the last quarter of 2011.
“The energy sector recorded the highest value of planned investment followed by mining, real estate and business services,” he said.
Uganda is beset by frequent and widespread power outages from years of underinvestment and poor planning in the sector, which have in turn hobbled industrial growth.
The country’s power supply deficit is currently estimated at 130 megawatts (MW) and last year, 24-hour-long outages sparked a series of riots across the nation.
