Uganda recently celebrated 34 years since the NRM government came into power – a government that has by and large presided over much of the country’s economic progress in its 57-year modern history.
This year also marks 27 years since a consortium of local Ugandan investors acquired 100% of the privatised former Lake Victoria Bottling Company (LVBC) in 1993. The consortium of local investors including myself, Dr. Amos Nzeyi , Chris Kayoboke and Eng. Daniel Kigozi (R.I.P) renamed the company to Crown Bottlers Limited.
However, in 1997, International Pepsi-Cola Bottler Investments, a South African firm, acquired 51 per cent stake in Crown Bottlers Limited and renamed it Crown Beverages Limited. In 2001, the interests of International Pepsi-Cola Bottler Investments were bought back by the local shareholders, thus making the company once again 100 per cent Ugandan owned.
Unfortunately, by then, our colleague, Eng. Daniel Kigozi, who had served Uganda in various capacities such as former Managing Director of Uganda Breweries and later a Minister of Industry and Minister of Works, had passed on, but we were blessed to have on board, his wife, Prof. Margaret Kigozi, with whom we have built the company into one of Uganda’s biggest companies.
Since then, the shareholders have invested over USD 200 million (UGX 740 billion) in the business and we are to date, one of Uganda’s biggest employers and among Uganda’s top 20 taxpayers – having paid a total of UGX 284 billion between 2013 and 2018.
The story of the transformation of Crown Beverages Limited is very synonymous with the story of Uganda’s growth over the last three decades – the country has been built literally from ruins, one step at a time, and today, most of all the fundamentals needed to spring us into a middle income country are in position.
Ugandans today are healthier and live longer – life expectancy has grown from about 48 years in 1986 to 63 years in 2019. Ugandans, especially the youths, are more educated – adult literacy rate has increased from 50% in the 80s to now over 76.5% and 90% for the 15-24 age group.
The proportion of people with access to electricity has climbed from about 5% in the 80s to over 28% in 2018/19, while the number of paved roads has grown by more than 6 times from 987 kms in 1986/87 to 6,348.7 kms. The investment in road infrastructure and other enhancements in border export and […]
