Industrialisation: Mbarara city leaders woo Madhvani Group with free land
MBARARA– Mbarara city leadership is willing to offer free land to Madhvani Group of Companies to establish factories in a bid to boost the industrialization of the city and the western region at large.
The proposal was mooted after comes a delegation of 35 traders and leaders of Mbarara city under their umbrella body Mbarara City Traders Association [MBACITA] visited Madhvani Group of Companies such as Kakira Sugar Limited to benchmark how best they can run their businesses.
During the business tour in Jinja on Friday, the city leadership appealed to Kamlesh Madhvani, a grandson of late Muljibhai Madhvani who started Kakira Fugar factory in 1920 to construct a similar sugar factory in Mbarara to attract investment and boost development.
“For us as city leaders, we are in total support and willing to convince some of our colleagues who are not here with us to agree to allocate you land in Mbarara where you can set up a sugar facility that can provide jobs to our children and grandchildren and where other locals can supply it with raw materials,” Bonny Tashobya Karutsya, the speaker Mbarara City Council emphasised.
According to Edson Mushabe, Mbarara City North Deputy Mayor, part of the visit was to benchmark with Madhvani Group of Companies and identify prospects for industrial development in the city.
“Our visit was to attract investment in Mbarara because Mbarara is still virgin as far as business is concerned. 2ndly we have been using most of Madhvani group of companies’ products so we wanted to know where and how such products are manufactured,” Mushabe said.
Also Susan Kentalo, secretary MBACITA said the bench-mark is to package the association to be focused and have a stable sustainable plan for the traders in the city.
The Resident City Commissioner Mbarara City North, Robert Kanusu challenged the business community in Mbarara to expand the business plans and ideas beyond the region in order to attract more investors.
“We need to penetrate DR Congo and Kigali under regional economic integration. And we hope that a lot can be achieved since the will of the people is there and the leadership of Mbarara is willing to support and accept new investments in the city.”
“The opportunity is there, the market is there, the population is okay. So the city is on track to development in order to improve on the quality of products and earn improved prices from goods and services,” Kanusu added.
Madhvani together with the joint managing directors of Kakira Sugar Limited admitted that investing in western Uganda will widen their market base, especially in the neighbouring countries of DR Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
“You see Mbarara is an upcoming region strategically located for business and an entry point to most of the African countries,” he said.
The Madhvani Group of Companies commonly referred to as the Madhvani Group, is one of the largest conglomerates in Uganda. The group has investments in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Middle East, India, and North America.
The company employs 11,000 persons and indirectly benefits 200,000 individuals in its surrounding districts.
MBACITA is a voluntary business organization registered with Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) in August 2021 to support the business community.
The association is collaborating with the developing partners in Mbarara City such as the Uganda Revenue Authority [URA], Uganda Registrations Services Bureau [URSB], Mbarara City Council, and Uganda Bureau of Standards [UNBS], and financial institutions to address business-related challenges such as taxation, licenses among others.
The Mbarara-based association has 1681 traders but targets a total of 680,000 traders in the city.
https://thecooperator.news/mbarara-traders-to-learn-from-madhvani-group-of-companies/
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