Western companies are blind to Ugandan investments - President Museveni

Chinese private investment in Uganda is growing while Westerners are losing appetite to put money to work in the country, President Yoweri Museveni told Reuters, pledging to step up efforts to tackle corruption that have made slow progress.

Museveni, in power since 1986 and one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, said Uganda was working to sign a number of deals with Chinese private sector lenders in sectors such as agro- and fertilizer-processing, minerals processing and textiles.

“The Western companies have lost their spectacles; they no longer have the eyes to see opportunities. But the Chinese see opportunities, and they come, and they are knocking, they are coming very vigorously,” Museveni told Reuters. “But (Western companies) are saturated with wealth.

They are not bothered.”

Chinese state entities and private-sector firms have long been a driving force of investment in Africa, lending countries on the continent hundreds of billions of dollars as part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

According to the Uganda Investment Authority, the country ranked third in Africa on foreign direct investment (FDI) from China in recent years.

The ties have not been without conflict, however.

A parliamentary probe in October concluded that China had imposed onerous conditions on a $200 million loan to Kampala, including the potential forfeiture of the east African country’s sole international airport.

Museveni flatly denied using the airport as collateral.