For the year 2020, some traders will feel like making the decision to invest more money in their businesses, or cutting back, will come down to what the magic trick of abracadabra reveals. It’s a classic case of damn if you do, damn if you don’t, writes JEFF MBANGA.
With the political campaign season expected to hit fever pitch earlier than expected, many businesspeople will struggle to balance out their fear with greed as they take a bet on whether to invest more money in the businesses or cut back.
With security levels expected to be heightened, many businesspeople might want to hold back until the election is done, while others might want to employ the business strategy of opening up new lines of revenue as everyone is running for their lives.
If there is anything that has been a critical marketing tool for Museveni and the ruling party in their pursuit of public confidence and votes over the years, it is the purported security in the country. At the last World Economic Forum conference in South Africa, Museveni, while wooing investors, said Uganda enjoys a lot of security and that is why the country is one of the biggest hosts for refugees worldwide.
While the police says the crime rate in 2018 dropped by 5.2 per cent to 238,746 cases reported compared to 2017, it adds, “there was, however, an increase in homicide, sex-related crimes, breakings, robbery, political/media crimes and narcotic cases.”
This spate of crimes, if not checked, could jolt foreign missions into issuing travel alerts, which could scare away tourists – the biggest source of foreign exchange earnings at $1.4 billion as at the end of 2018.
If there is one industry that can instill confidence in the economy, it is the country’s oil project. It is not hard to tell that the market is eagerly anticipating the conclusion of the latest round of talks between the oil companies and government over the farmdown of Tullow Oil’s stake in Uganda.
The collapse of the negotiations in late August 2019 and the subsequent suspension of tenders and contracts for the East Africa Crude Oil pipeline were met with shock and pain, especially for companies that have invested massively ahead of the project’s takeoff.
However, the two parties are closing in on a deal partly because of a number of reasons. For starters, fatigue appears to be setting in on both sides. President Museveni, whose health […]
