Business

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati But Ugandan exporters dismiss the US trade partnership The 8th forum for the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) held in Nairobi last week attracted a mammoth delegation that comprised the minister of trade, tourism and industry, Kahinda Otafiire, ministry officials and a group from the AGOA …

By Patrick Kagenda You have been accused of running down the chamber. What is happening? That is not true. If anything I have done a lot to make the chamber an established institution. I found the chamber being run without functional structures, affiliated to the National Enterprises Corporation (NEC) and …

By Kabona Esiara As Rwanda, Burundi demand end of TRC concession to Indian Rail Company With the construction of a trans-boundary railway line from Tanzania through Rwanda to Burundi planned to begin at the end of this year, infrastructure ministers in the three countries are pushing Tanzania to terminate the …

By Okodan Akwap Entebbe International Airport certainly needs to be upgraded to a level that can help us deal with some of the debilitating effects of our being a landlocked nation. But when you listen to the ongoing arguments over this matter you realise with dismay that, once again, many …

By Patrick Kagenda UNBS, URA to integrate systems by end of year Uganda has 52 gazetted entry points for imports but only 19 are monitored for quality of goods by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS). Smugglers know this. Result: Counterfeits and fake goods, especially electrical appliances, cables, cosmetics, …

By Patrick Kagenda The Independents Patrick Kagenda talked to Terry Kahuma, the Executive Director at Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) about the substandard and counterfeit goods on the Ugandan market. What are you doing about the substandard and counterfeit goods flooding the Uganda market? The first thing we try …

By Joe Powell July 23, 2009, 159 years after the world’s first submarine cable was laid, will go down in history as the day East Africa became fully connected to the world’s digital super-highways. Seacom’s cable, 17,000km long and costing $650 million, is now officially ‘live’ with a capacity of …

By Agencies Sale of Heritage Uganda assets to Shell more likely The oil exploration sector is rife with takeovers and speculation at the moment, and traders are currently hearing of another possible bid, Royal Dutch Shell for Heritage Oil. Initially, the value of Heritage shares rose over the news but …

  By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Tax body ranked most corrupt in East Africa In 2003 President Museveni described the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) as “a den of thieves” because the levels of corruption were alarmingly high. Soon after, the tax body restructured and appeared to have put corruption and incompetence …

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati Nasser Husain imports used Japanese cars from Japan for his small depot in Bugolobi opposite the defunct Tri Star fabrics factory. Husain says used cars would be affordable if it were not for the high taxes. He says a car that would cost Shs 8 million …