Gen Saleh Opens Third Investment Symposium in Mbarara

The Chief Coordinator of Operation Wealth Creation Gen Salim Saleh has officially opened the Third Investment Symposium in Mbarara City on Tuesday. 

The symposium organised by Uganda Development Bank Limited (UDBL) in partnership with Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) in Mbarara City is running under the theme “The contribution of Financial Innovation to the resilience of the economy for sustained growth”. 

The two-day event taking place at Kakyeka stadium started Monday February 21st and will run till Wednesday February 23rd 2022. It seeks to identify business opportunities in the region, host business to business (B2B) engagements and convene leading local and national leaders on the question of financing for recovery and growth. 

Participants drawn from political, business, academic, and civil society leadership from the 13 districts making up Ankole Sub region are to share success experiences, identify business opportunities, share entrepreneurial linkages that can build a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The event has been graced by speakers including; Trade Permanent Secretary Ms Geraldine Sali, UDB’s managing director Mrs Patricia Ojangole, Mbarara North MP Dr Robert Mwesigwa Rukaari, among others. 

The organizers say at the end of the symposium, viable actions should emerge on how to put Ankole on a sustainable path to a vibrant economy that is a crucial part of the regional and national economy. 

The symposium, part of an on-going series in conjunction with Operation wealth creation and other partners, is intended to bring together a cohort of coordinated thinking that can learn about the business opportunities of the times.

The Ankole symposium is the first of the four planned investment symposiums in four sub region through which the government aims to bring together investors from different regions to showcase, discuss and explore the investment environment in Uganda, emerging markets, opportunities, and challenges that investors face.

The Uganda Investment Symposium was launched in 2019 with the inaugural symposium held in West Nile region and a subsequent one held in Rwenzori sub region.

About Uganda Development Bank Limited

Uganda Development Bank Limited (UDB) is the country’s national Development Finance Institution (DFI) with a mandate to accelerate socio-economic development in Uganda through sustainable financial interventions. Consistent with this mandate, the Bank supports projects within the private sector that demonstrate potential to deliver high socio-economic value, in terms of job creation, improved production output, tax contribution and foreign exchange generation, among other outcomes.

These projects fall within the key priority sectors of our economy, and in line with Uganda’s development priorities, the Bank’s financing interventions are mainly in Primary Agriculture, Agro-processing, and manufacturing which account for about 80%of its investment portfolio. The Bank however undertakes specific interventions in other sectors including Tourism, Human Capital Development and Infrastructure including ICT.