The head of the State House Investors Protection Unit (SH-IPU) has appealed to government ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) to embrace the Electronic Investors Protection Portal (EIPP).
Addressing communication officers of different MDAs at her office in Kampala on Wednesday, Col Nakalema said the EIPP is intended to help investors overcome some of these challenges by providing prior information.
“While acknowledging the crucial role of government communicators, the unit highlights the need for effective communication to sensitize the public about government interventions, such as the Small Business Recovery Fund, to ensure wider participation,” she said.
She reported that since SH-IPU was established in September in 2023, 186 local investors have reported facing challenges in their work.
“We received complaints from 186 investors where 96 were from our local investors while the rest were from foreign ones. We forwarded their complaints to different investigating agencies such as the Inspectorate of Government and State House Anti-Corruption Unit and also started engagements with the relevant MDAs,” she said.
“For foreign investors, the issues are; fraud, where fraudsters are diverting them from the airport and the investors end up losing all their resources, there is also bribery and use of false documents where people are using government domain; and another major one is delayed decision making by officials from different MDAs,” she added.
President Museveni established the State House Investors Protection Unit (SH-IPU), in his unwavering commitment to create a conducive environment for Investors by safeguarding them from corrupt practices and unnecessary bureaucracies.
Collaboratively, the unit is working hand in hand with the Uganda Investment Authority, Uganda Revenue Authority, Uganda Registration Services Bureau, and the Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration.
“We have coordinated with different government agencies who have responded positively, for example, the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), and Ministry of Finance have sensitized local investors about their rights and available government benefits such as the Small Medium Recovery Fund whose uptake was Shs6b in June last year but had grown to Shs31b in December,” Col Nakalema said.
“For foreign investors, different MDAs such as Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) and others have also swung into action,” she added.
The communication officers said the Unit is helping them fight fraud.
“In line with SH-IPU, we at URA take investors as our primary targets of taxation and we have improved and revamped our process to create ease of access for information that an investor would want and have digitized most of our services,” Mr Ibrahim Bbosa, the spokesperson of URA, said.
The spokesperson of Uganda Investment Authority, Mr David Rupiny, said they have eased their processes by ensuring that investors are served diligently.
