The Head of State House Investors' Protection Unit (SHIPU), Col Edith Nakalema Asizua, says the unit has in the last three years helped investors to recover Shs557 billion that they had lost to fraudulent investment deals.
"Through collaboration and coordination, SHIPU has helped both domestic and foreign investors recover $149.5 million equivalent to Shs557 billion and invested into the business flow. We need to increase collaborative efforts to ensure that we facilitate our investors, both foreign and domestic," Col Nakalema told stakeholders while presenting the achievements made by State House Investors' Protection Unit in the last three years, during an engagement held at the unit's offices in Kampala on September 3.
According to Col Nakalema, land and financial fraud still top cases that freeze the investment capital of both domestic and international investors.
"The unit has handled a total of 719 land and financial fraud cases. These are the two issues that most often freeze capital," she told stakeholders.
She also disclosed that the worth of gold cases referred to Police and Mineral Protection Unit and State House Anti-Corruption Unit (SHACU) stands at $71.4 million while a total of 508 cases referred to government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for investigation are worth approximately $95.6 million.
Ms Nakalema said that since its inception, the unit has received and handled a total of 1852 different concerns raised by investors, of which 1080 were successfully coordinated, 327 concerns referred to other agencies, while 446 concerns are pending.
Apart from land and financial fraud, Ms Nakalema also said that the high cost of capital and bureaucracies in public offices that cause unnecessary delays are equally frustrating investors.
"Our investors are dying of loans, they are selling their property because of loans. About six of them lost their capital. This affects their economic contribution to the national economic growth agenda," she said.
She explained that the National Development Plan IV requires the private sector to contribute Shs180.4 trillion by Financial Year 2029/2030, representing 30.4 percent of the whole plan, calling for a conducive investment environment to enable them hit the targets.
According to her, the Uganda Electronic Investors Protection Portal has encouraged more investors to raise their concerns and that every case reported is a voluntary act by someone who believes SHIPU will act where other doors are closed. She also noted that the front desk remains open.
President Museveni established the State House Investors Protection Unit (SHIPU) to create a conducive environment for investors by safeguarding them from corrupt practices and unnecessary bureaucracies.
The Unit's Mission is a thriving investment climate in Uganda. Brig Gen Henry Isoke, head of the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, acknowledged that fraud-related cases are quite many.
"Gold fraud related cases that my unit is handling are worth Shs700 billion within a space of one and a half years. Foreign investors suffer from procurement scams where we have people who go out and source potential companies that will invest here and tell them there are lucrative business deals they could benefit from. These are followed by Gold and land fraud. We can't talk about investment without land. That is an area we need to stabilize," Isoke said.
He disclosed that two years ago, land fraud cases handled by the unit stood at about 50 percent of fraud cases but have since reduced to about 30 percent.
The Chairperson of the National Planning Authority (NPA) of Uganda, Prof Pamela K. Mbabazi, said investor protection must include protection from government fragmentation.
"An investor should experience one government, not a succession of institutions giving different instructions. If an investor must separately navigate land, environment, utilities, immigration, taxation, standards, local governments, licensing without effective coordination, I think the government itself becomes part of the transaction cost. Systematic bottlenecks should be removed permanently," Prof Mbabazi advised.
She also suggested that domestic investors must be at the centre of investment conversation, urging that Uganda cannot build a resilient $500 billion economy premised on foreign capital.
"Our domestic farms must grow from small enterprises, into medium size companies and eventually to regional and multinational African Enterprises. We should therefore ask, what will it take to produce Uganda's next generation continental companies, access to patient capital, technology standards, markets and predictable regulations must become part of the investment agenda," she said.
"Investment should increasingly form Uganda's economic geography and comparative advantage. Instead of every district asking for every type of factory, Uganda should develop investment compositions around regional comparative advantage instead of duplicating the same across the country," she added.
