Uganda–DRC Summit: New frontiers being opened for investors

By Duncan Abigaba

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo; On May 29, 2022, a Uganda Airlines plane descended at N’Djili Airport, carrying a delegation of Ugandan business people, entrepreneurs and Heads of Government ministries, departments, and agencies responsible for trade and migration.

The delegation, including the Senior Presidential Advisor for Special Duties and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and  Industrial Development, Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo, is headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga, and co-ordinated by the Private Sector Foundation Uganda.

The MDAs in Kinshasa include Uganda Export Promotion Board, Uganda Revenue Authority, Uganda Tourism Board, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Uganda National Bureau of Standards. Others are Uganda Airlines, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives, Ministry of Works and Transport, and Ministry of East African Community Affairs.

The Ugandan business community pitching at the Summit includes the Agriculture, Manufacturing, Construction, Banking, Transport, Logistics, Tourism and ICT sectors.

The high-level summit opened officially on Monday with Congo’s Minister for Foreign Trade, Juan Lucien Bussa, representing President Etienne Tshisekedi. Other Ministers present were; Julien Baluku (Industry), Didier Mazanga Makanzu (Regional Integration), Modero Nsimba Matondo (Tourism) and Eustache M. Muhanzi (SMEs).

In his opening remarks, Stephen Asiimwe, the Chief Executive Officer of Private Sector Foundation Uganda, the main organiser of the Summit said that Ugandans were in Kinshasa to do business. “We have come to business. We have mobilised and travelled with a consortium of private and Government players. We want a return on investment for this initiative”, he said.

The Head of the Uganda delegation committed that Uganda would work with DRC to iron out all the major issues affecting trade, including transportation, taxation and security. “I am a senior Government person.

The reason I am seated in this room, is to listen to your issues and we work on solutions as the East African Community”, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga said, responding to issues raised by both Ugandan and Congolese businessmen during a plenary session.

Hon. Kadaga, also said DRC was committed to expediting formalities of joining the bloc because both Cabinet and Parliament had ratified the instrument which now awaited depositing at the Secretariat.

In her remarks, Kadaga said that DRC was fully committed to ratifying the Customs Union and Common Market Protocol of the East African Community, to harmonise issues that are currently hindering trade between Uganda and DRC such as taxation, Non-Tariff Barriers, among others. Kadaga added that currently, East African Community is focused on establishing a Monetary Institute which will facilitate the third protocol of the community, the Monetary Union, by 2024.

On his part, Minister Bussa said that President Tshisekedi just like President Museveni, was committed to integration, promotion of trade and creation of African billionaires, before adding that DRC would send a delegation of Government officials and businessmen to Kampala, for a reciprocal summit, as soon as possible.

Biggest news of the day came from the Minister for Industry who invited Ugandans to invest in the new economic zone (equivalent of Uganda’s industrial parks) and they would get a tax holiday and other benefits.

By third day of the Summit, the aura in Kinshasa was music to the ears of the Ugandan business community.

Both Ugandan and Congolese authorities had agreed that Uganda-DRC Business Summit shall be an annual event, the Ministers had committed to quarterly Government to Government review meetings to monitor progress of harmonising trade practices and elimination of barriers, and most of the Ugandan companies had acquired a foothold in Kinshasa.

In the next few months, Ugandan products such as vegetables, milk, chicken, steel, cement and others, will be in Kinshasa, joining a list of already established Ugandan companies in DRC such as Movit Products Limited.

It is worth noting that Uganda approved construction and upgrading of the national roads inside the Eastern DRC, from Kasindi section (border) to Beni city (80km) and the integration of the Beni-Butembo axis (54kms) to national road; and the Bunagana (border)–Rutshuru-Goma road (89km) on grounds that the project will benefit the Government and people of Uganda through the economic interconnectivity that would improve mobility and ease of doing business, people to people interconnectivity of the two countries, security in the eastern DRC; and trade and investment.

In June, 2021, the Heads of State of Uganda and DRC launched the construction works at Mpondwe-Lhubiriha border.

The writer is a member of the Ugandan Delegation at the Uganda/DRC Business Summit in Kinshasa