Uganda - The African Mirror

Jan

24

2024

Uganda in talks with UAE investment firm over planned oil refinery

UGANDA is negotiating with an investment company led by a member of Dubai's royal family to develop a planned $4 billion refinery for some of its crude oil, its energy minister said. Uganda in July last year terminated negotiations with a consortium that included a unit of U.S. firm Baker Hughes over its failure to mobilise financing in time. Uganda is counting on the 60,000 barrel-per-day refinery for its nascent hydrocarbons industry. "Expressions of interest were received from several potential investors and they were evaluated ... following which a memorandum of understanding was signed on the 22 of December 2023," Minister…

Jan

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Uganda’s battle for the youth vote – how Museveni keeps Bobi Wine’s reach in check

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

UGANDA is one of the youngest countries in the world, with an average age of 15.9 years. Young people aged below 30 make up about 77% of the country’s population of 47 million people. Young people have legitimate and wide-ranging grievances, from unemployment to disenfranchisement. Opportunities remain limited, with two-thirds of Ugandans working for themselves or doing family-based agricultural work. REBECCA TAPSCOTT, Lecturer, University of York ANNA MACDONALD, Associate Professor, Global Development, University of East Anglia Yet, young people in Uganda haven’t coalesced as an electoral bloc. This is despite the emergence of a presidential candidate who champions youth issues.…

Jan

09

2024

By The African Mirror

Uganda will soon be exporting oil: an energy economist outlines 3 keys to success

NEWS

UGANDA entered into agreements in 2012 with two foreign oil entities to exploit its oil resources. Total Energies holds 56.67% of the joint venture partnership and China National Oil Offshore Company (CNOOC) has 28.33%. Through Uganda National Oil Company, the government owns the remaining 15%. MICAH LUCY ABIGABA, Energy Economics Lecturer, Makerere University Production is due to start in 2025. As part of the production sharing agreement, the production licences are valid for 25 years upon extracting the first oil. To secure the best possible outcome for Uganda, the government needs to focus on three issues: the production sharing agreement,…

Jan

05

2024

By The African Mirror

TotalEnergies hires former Benin PM to assess E.Africa land purchases

BUSINESS

FRANCE'S TotalEnergies has hired former prime minister of Benin Lionel Zinsou to assess land purchases in Uganda and Tanzania as part of the Tilenga oil and East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) projects. Activist groups, led by Friends of the Earth France, are suing TotalEnergies over the projects, accusing it of failing to protect local people and the environment. TotalEnergies rejects the allegations. TotalEnergies said on Thursday that as the land acquisition process draws to a close, Zinsou will evaluate the procedures used, the conditions for consultation, the compensation and relocation of people affected, and grievance handling. Zinsou's consulting firm…

Jan

04

2024

By The African Mirror

Ugandan LGBT activist in critical condition after stabbing

NEWS

A prominent LGBT rights activist in Uganda, where sexual minorities say they have faced a wave of abuse since a harsh anti-gay law was enacted last year, was stabbed and is in critical condition, his organisation said. Steven Kabuye was "stabbed to near death by unknown assailants a few meters from our home as he was heading for work this morning", Coloured Voices Media Foundation-Truth to LGBTQ Uganda, said on the social media platform X. Coloured Voices shared a video that showed Kabuye writhing in pain with an apparent gushing wound on his wrist and a knife protruding from his…

Dec

16

2023

By KRISTOF TITECA

Who paid the price for Uganda’s refugee fraud scandal (and who didn’t)?

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ANTWERP, Belgium In 2018, as Uganda was catering for hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese escaping conflict across the border, a major corruption and mismanagement scandal hit the country's widely praised refugee programme. The scandal, which implicated both government officials and the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), made global headlines. Yet almost five years on, many of those most involved appear to have avoided legal or professional repercussions, Kristof Titeca, an associate professor of international development at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, believes. “Little meaningful accountability occurred on the side of the Ugandan government,” Titeca told The New Humanitarian, summarising the…

Dec

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda will soon be exporting oil: an energy economist outlines 3 keys to success

NEWS

UGANDA entered into agreements in 2012 with two foreign oil entities to exploit its oil resources. Total Energies holds 56.67% of the joint venture partnership and China National Oil Offshore Company (CNOOC) has 28.33%. Through Uganda National Oil Company, the government owns the remaining 15%. MICAH LUCY ABIGABA, Energy Economics Lecturer, Makerere University Production is due to start in 2025. As part of the production sharing agreement, the production licences are valid for 25 years upon extracting the first oil. To secure the best possible outcome for Uganda, the government needs to focus on three issues: the production sharing agreement,…

Dec

07

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda accuses US of pushing ‘LGBT agenda’ after new round of sanctions

NEWS

UGANDA'S government denounced the United States' expansion of visa restrictions against its officials, accusing Washington of pushing an "LGBT agenda" in Africa. The new visa restrictions announced on Monday target unidentified officials the U.S. deems responsible for undermining democracy and repressing marginalised groups in Uganda, including the LGBTQ community. Uganda enacted one of the world's harshest anti-gay laws in May, which calls for the death penalty for certain same-sex acts. "There's a coup at the State Department in the U.S. It is being taken over by people who are pushing the LGBT agenda in Africa," State Minister for Foreign Affairs Okello Oryem…

Dec

06

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda plans to double domestic borrowing in 2023/24 FY

BUSINESS

UGANDA is planning to more than double its level of domestic market borrowing to 6.8 trillion Ugandan shillings ($1.79 billion) in the 2023/24 financial year to help finance new spending needs, the Ministry of Finance said. Government finances have been squeezed since the World Bank, traditionally a key source of cheap credit for the country, cut lending earlier this year to protest against the enactment of one of the world's strictest anti-homosexuality laws. In a budget speech in June, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said the government intended to borrow 3.2 trillion Ugandan shillings from the domestic market via issuance of treasury bills…

Nov

29

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda to borrow $150 mln from China’s Exim after World Bank halts funding

BUSINESS

UGANDA is preparing to borrow $150 million from China's Export-Import Bank (Exim) to help expand its internet infrastructure, the finance ministry. The move underscores the East African country's increasing reliance for credit on Chinese lenders after the World Bank halted all new lending to Uganda earlier this year in protest at a new anti-homosexuality law. A junior finance minister and the minister for information asked lawmakers on Monday to authorise the debt, the finance ministry wrote on X, the social media platform. The money, the ministry said, is "to finance the supply, installation, commissioning and support of the national data…