Partnering executives addressed journalists on Monday this week. Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The much-anticipated East African SME Oil and Gas Conference kicks off Thursday this week, in Kampala, organized by Stanbic Uganda Holdings in partnership with Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), the Petroleum Authority of Uganda, CNOOC, and the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA).
Participation will be both physical (Serena Kampala) and virtual (through zoom).
Held under the theme, exploring opportunities for SMEs in the Oil and Gas sector, the conference will bridge the knowledge gap between SMEs and the Oil and Gas sector as relates to business opportunities, which under the development phase of the sector, are estimated between $15bn—20bn.
The conference will also address some of the challenges faced by SMEs in terms of tapping opportunities in the oil sector.
The conference which brings together various key stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to interface with SMEs will explore opportunities in farming, catering services, camp management services, logistics and transportation, security, waste management and more.
Apart from building their networks, attendees will network and get answers on identifying business opportunities, supplying, and financing projects for the oil and gas industry.
Tony Otoa, the chief executive, Stanbic Business Incubator said: “We have decided with our partners to say, how can we support these businesses? We want to see more money retained in the country. We want to talk about opportunities beyond Uganda, opportunities in the different projects and the biggest challenge to most Ugandans: access to finance. This is why the conference is important.” He was addressing the press on Monday ahead of the conference.
Catherine Tumusiime, the chief human resource officer at UNOC said, “A number of initiatives have been undertaken specifically to enhance the capacity of SMEs and one of them is to partner with the Stanbic Business Incubator to make sure that all our qualified suppliers go through a training that builds their capacity to make sure that they are able to participate in oil and gas projects.”
On her part, Eva Mpalampa, the sector head oil and gas at Stanbic Bank said, “Oil and Gas is one of the things that is going to drive growth for Uganda, and what we would like to do is to be able to help the SMEs, be able to tap into that growth because with that growth comes a number of opportunities like jobs and others.”