By Aggie Asiimwe Konde

Africa’s prosperity challenge around food systems is not simply a question of resources, ambition or knowledge. It is increasingly a question of organisation: whether the institutions that hold our knowledge, capital, mandates and capabilities can work together around the same economic outcomes.

But delivery does not happen through declarations alone in daily practice. It depends on whether institutions can convert shared ambition into coordinated decisions, investment, and measurable improvements in people’s lives. That is as true nationally as it is globally.

In the first drawing of Prosperity Architecture, I argued that Africa already possesses much of the knowledge required to build prosperity. Governments, universities, businesses, development institutions and communities have accumulated decades of experience in improving productivity, strengthening markets, and building resilience.

The challenge is not only what Africa knows. It is what our institutions can do with that knowledge. Knowledge creates value when institutions can access it, connect it across sectors, and translate it into better decisions, investable ideas, innovation, and higher returns. Africa’s institutional challenge is therefore one of alignment: enabling governments, businesses, research institutions, financiers, development actors and communities to use dispersed knowledge as a shared asset for prosperity.

Long before a processor expands a factory or a bank finances a value chain, a farmer has made the first investment. She has committed land, labour, capital, and time. Once the crop is established, much of that investment is sunk, while the return remains exposed to weather, input costs, prices and whether a market materialises.

Economically, the farmer is not simply a beneficiary of the food system. He or she is the first and most vested investor. Once we recognise this, the institutional question changes. The task is not merely to support production but organise the conditions that allow farming enterprises to generate reliable returns and give other investors’ confidence to follow.

Those conditions do not sit in agriculture alone. Energy, roads, irrigation, finance, insurance, information, standards, research, skills and predictable policy shape whether a farming enterprise thrives. Integration is not a programme label. It is whether complementary support reaches the same place, value chain, and people at the right time.

Coordination alone is insufficient. Higher production becomes prosperity only when value is created and retained. Institutions must confront where margins are captured, where markets fail, and how public choices can help farming enterprises move from producing more to earning more. Transformation begins when productivity becomes income, supports processing and services, creates productive jobs, and makes nutritious food more affordable.

Farmer prosperity as an engine of wider economic transformation.

A region does not prosper because kilometers of road, megawatts of electricity or financing products exist separately. It prospers when these investments connect around the same economic outcome: more reliable farmer incomes, viable enterprises, functioning markets, and stronger livelihoods.

Coordination does not mean every institution does everything. It means institutions make decisions against a shared prosperity outcome, so that one investment increases the return on another. This places Ministries of Finance nearer the centre of the conversation, not to direct every sector, but because budgets reveal whether competing priorities add up to a coherent prosperity strategy.

The question is not simply how much expenditure carries an agricultural label. It is whether spending across agriculture, energy, infrastructure, health, skills, trade and industry improves the investment environment, enables value creation and attracts responsible private capital.

The institutional drawing therefore comes down to three questions? First, who owns the prosperity outcome? Because farmer prosperity cannot belong to the Agriculture Ministry alone. Shared ownership begins by defining the economic outcome and identifying which institutions are accountable for creating the conditions needed to achieve it.

Second, what must institutions be able to do together? The test is whether policy, budgets, and investment reinforce one another, whether risks become more manageable and whether more value is retained within the economy. Finally, how should collective action be organised? The objective is not to place everyone around every table. It is to connect those who hold the mandate, control the budget, bring capital, carry risk, contribute knowledge, and remain accountable for delivery.

These questions define AGRA’s call for a Renewed Alliance: a practical compact aligning public, private, research, farmer and development institutions around measurable prosperity outcomes. Its purpose is to turn shared knowledge into coordinated investment and create the conditions for farmers and enterprises to invest and reinvest.

The enduring question after UNGA is therefore not whether the world can articulate greater ambition. It is whether our institutions can organise themselves to deliver it. Ultimately, farmer prosperity is not simply an outcome of Africa’s transformation. It is a test of our institutions and can become one of the engines of our wider prosperity.

Aggie Asiimwe Konde – is the Chief Brand, Communications, External Engagements & Advocacy at AGRA

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Justice (Retired) Richard Oscar Okumu-Wengi

By Justice Richard Okumu Wengi

There are men whose greatness is measured by the battles they fought, the ranks they attained and the commands they held. There are others whose greatness is revealed in a quieter way: in their wisdom, their humility, their loyalty to friends and their ability to listen as much as they speak.

Lieutenant General (Rtd) Frederick Alexander Okecho, who passed away in Kampala on September 30, 2026, belonged to the latter rare category. He was a gallant soldier, a distinguished servant of Uganda and, to those of us fortunate enough to know him personally, a gentle and thoughtful friend whose presence will be sorely missed.

As I reflect on his life and service, I am reminded of a simple truth: even the lion does not roar all the time. Sometimes, it lies low, observes its surroundings and gathers its thoughts. General Okecho understood this lesson. Behind the stature of a senior military officer was a man of remarkable restraint, modesty and quiet strength.

I cherished the moments when he would visit me at my home in Kampala. We would sit together for hours, discussing Uganda, its politics, its institutions and the direction of our country. These were not hurried conversations. He listened carefully, weighed arguments and offered his thoughts with the measured judgment of a man who had witnessed the many turns of Uganda’s turbulent history. Those conversations remain among my treasured memories of him.

Born on June 23, 1936, Okecho’s journey took him from his ancestral home in West Budama, Tororo, through the classrooms of Kisoko Primary School, Nyakasura and, Nabumali High School, and Kyambogo Teacher Training College, before his path led him into military service. His early experience as a teacher was an important beginning to a life that would demand discipline, leadership and the ability to guide others.

He subsequently pursued further studies at the University of Edinburgh and, after joining the Uganda Army in 1965, undertook military training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Britain. His professional development also took him to the United States, where he attended courses at Fort Leavenworth Command and General Staff College and Fort Bragg.

These institutions helped shape an officer whose career would span military command, diplomacy, intelligence and public administration. But formal training alone does not make a great soldier. The true measure of an officer lies in how knowledge and authority are applied, particularly during periods of national uncertainty.

General Okecho served Uganda through some of its most difficult political and military transitions. His career included service in the liberation army, a senior position in the National Resistance Army and subsequent responsibilities in the country’s security and diplomatic establishments.

His service extended beyond the battlefield and the barracks. He served as Uganda’s ambassador to China from 1992 to 1998 and later as Director of the External Security Organisation from 1998 to 2001. He also undertook responsibilities in defence administration, including chairing the Ministry of Defence Contracts Committee for several years.

These assignments called for different but complementary qualities: the soldier’s discipline, the diplomat’s tact, the intelligence officer’s discretion and the administrator’s attention to detail. Okecho’s long career placed him at the intersection of all four.

Yet what I shall remember most is not his rank, his appointments or the honours bestowed upon him. It is the man himself.

In a country where public office and military rank can sometimes create distance between individuals, General Okecho remained approachable. He did not need to dominate a room to establish his presence. His was the authority of experience, exercised without unnecessary noise.

His life also reminds us that service to country does not always follow a straight or predictable path. Uganda’s history has been mark

After training as a teacher at Kyambogo Teacher training College, Lt.General Fred Okecho joined the military in 1965.

ed by upheaval, political rivalry and profound institutional change. To serve through such periods requires resilience, adaptability and a capacity to maintain one’s sense of duty amid changing circumstances.

Okecho’s long association with the military, followed by his work in diplomacy and public service, reflected that enduring commitment to Uganda.

His passing on September 30 brought to an end a long life of service. He was laid to rest on October 8 at his ancestral home in Rubongi Parish, Tororo District, with full military honours. The ceremony, marked by a 15-gun salute, recognised the soldier and senior officer who had served his country over many years.

But the most enduring tribute will not be the salute, the uniform or the ceremony. It will be the memories held by family, colleagues, fellow officers and friends who experienced his generosity, wisdom and quiet companionship.

For those of us who knew him beyond the official occasions, there is a particular sadness in losing a man with whom one could sit and discuss the state of the nation for hours. Such friendships are not easily replaced. They are built over time, through mutual respect, honest conversation and the confidence that one can speak freely in the company of another.

My brother, General Okecho, I shall miss you very dearly.

You taught us, through your example, that gallantry need not be loud, that authority need not be overbearing and that a man can carry great responsibility without surrendering his humility.

May the Almighty God comfort your family, your colleagues and all those who mourn you. May He grant us the strength to celebrate your life even as we grieve your departure.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray that your soul rests in eternal peace.

Farewell, my brother. Rest well, gallant and gentle soldier.

Amen.

Retired Justice Richard Okumu Wengi

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By Lyton Gwokylya.

International trade is often understood from the moment products cross borders. Less attention is paid to what comes before — the factories, workers and decisions that turn an idea into a product. In summer 2026, I saw that side of business firsthand, not in a lecture hall but inside a Chinese manufacturing company.

As a Ugandan MBA student at China Agricultural University, I interned at Kaleter, operated by Zhucheng Zhongyu Electromechanical Equipment Co., Ltd., a poultry and agricultural equipment maker in Zhucheng, Shandong. I rotated through production workshops, packaging and shipment, construction sites and the International Trade Department, joining industry events and African market research. This gave me a deeper understanding of Chinese manufacturing and the workplace culture behind it.

Ugandan MBA student Lyton G. participates in practical production work during her internship at Kaleter in Zhucheng, Shandong Province. My introduction began far from the trade office. In my first weeks, I worked in the production workshops assembling poultry equipment and components — feeding systems and control equipment. I also learned how equipment is prepared, marked and checked before dispatch in the packaging and shipment workshop. For someone trained in international business, this seemed far from what I expected. It soon became one of the most valuable parts of the internship.

The factory taught me that international trade does not begin with a salesperson or a negotiation; it begins with understanding the product itself. An international customer wants to know how equipment operates and is installed, what conditions it requires and how components work together. Answering such questions requires more than knowing prices and specifications. This production experience later proved valuable when I moved into international trade.

On the factory floor I also began to understand the working culture. Punctuality, safety and adherence to procedures were taken seriously. Individual tasks were rarely isolated; one worker’s output affected the next. The efficiency I observed came not from working quickly but from coordination, consistency and understanding one’s role in a larger process. While one company cannot represent every Chinese workplace, at Kaleter I encountered a strong emphasis on discipline, teamwork and practical learning.

That understanding deepened at company project sites, where the components I had seen in production became complete poultry-farming systems. I joined on-site work — moving equipment to installation points, completing feeding troughs, aligning drinking lines and assisting with finishing. It changed my understanding of what a company sells.

A customer is not merely purchasing machinery; they are relying on a complete process involving design, production, transportation, installation, technical support and performance. Seeing those functions come together brought concepts such as operations, supply chains and customer value to life.

My move to the International Trade Department aligned the internship with my academic background and let me contribute a Ugandan perspective. Much of my work involved researching African poultry markets; sector development, equipment demand, competitors, import trends and entry opportunities. As a Ugandan, the assignment carried special meaning: I saw how a Chinese company evaluates African markets while contributing to my own understanding of the continent.

The research taught me that Africa cannot be treated as one uniform market. Countries differ widely in purchasing power, farming systems, infrastructure and customer needs. So, successful entry requires understanding how farmers make decisions, the role of distributors and institutions, financing limits and reliable after-sales support.

It also reshaped how I view China–Africa business relations, often reduced to trade figures. From inside one company, I saw that exporting a product is only the beginning; sustainable growth requires localisation: adapting communication, building trusted relationships and ensuring technology fits local conditions. African businesses likewise benefit from understanding the production systems behind Chinese products.

My exposure grew through industry events: Kaleter’s Third Non-Caged Laying Hens Development Forum, and VIV Select China in Shanghai, where I watched companies present technologies and build networks. I learned that a brief exhibition conversation is only the start of a longer process demanding follow-up, credibility and trust.

Participation in VIV Select China in Shanghai provided firsthand exposure to exhibition marketing, international networking and the competitive livestock-equipment industry. The most lasting lessons came from everyday interactions with colleagues. Practical learning stood out: when I did not understand a procedure, experienced employees demonstrated it first, letting me observe before trying. Even with limited technical Chinese, I learned that cross-cultural communication depends less on perfect language than on patience and a willingness to understand one another.

I also came to appreciate the collective nature of business. Equipment sold to an overseas customer has passed through engineers, production workers, quality-control staff, packaging, logistics, sales and installation crews. The customer may see one representative, but behind that person stands an entire organisation. Trade crosses borders, but its foundation is built long before a product leaves the factory.

The greatest value was seeing international business as an interconnected process. I arrived with an academic grasp of marketing, strategy and operations; I left appreciating the people, technical knowledge and cooperation that turn those concepts into practice.

For young Africans studying abroad, such experiences carry wider significance: we learn from our host countries while contributing knowledge of our own markets. As China– Africa links deepen, people who understand both environments can help build cooperation that is better informed and mutually beneficial.

I entered Kaleter expecting to learn how a Chinese company conducts business. I left with a broader lesson: meaningful international cooperation begins with understanding how people on both sides work, think and create value. Sometimes, that understanding begins not across a negotiating table, but on a factory floor.

The post Beyond the Classroom: A Ugandan Student Inside China’s Manufacturing World appeared first on 256 Business News.

By Bertie Jacobs

“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” That was one of the mantras of Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. It meant diplomacy backed by force. As US imperial ambitions expanded, the message was clear: negotiations carried more weight when the other party knew what refusal might cost.

But there is another ‘diplomatic’ practice from a few decades before Teddy, one associated with the British Royal Navy in the nineteenth century and demonstrated by American Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival in Japan with warships in 1853. Perry came to secure access. His ships made the consequences of resistance unmistakable.

For Africa, the vessels have changed. The question of who gets to dictate the terms remains.

US president Donald Trump is not renowned for speaking softly. His administration’s restrictions on entry to the United States have affected countries across the continent. Washington’s June 2025 proclamation imposed full entry restrictions on nationals of seven African countries, including Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Sudan. A December expansion added further African countries, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, while imposing partial restrictions on others, including Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania. These measures contain exceptions, but their continental reach is clear.

Washington presents these broader restrictions as responses to security concerns, inadequate screening and visa overstays. They differ from sanctions aimed at particular officials over disputed government policies. Yet both demonstrate the power that comes with controlling access.

Who may enter? On whose terms? And what must a government change to keep the door open?

South Africa offers a revealing case study. On 15 September, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions targeting people involved in policies Washington says enable uncompensated land seizures, racial discrimination or the incitement of violence against minority groups. No individuals were named.

Prof. Piet Croucamp, political analyst from the North-West University (NWU), says the ambiguity makes the restrictions an instrument of political leverage.

“The most striking thing about the statement is how vague it is. It names no individuals and relies on a provision that gives US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wide discretion to bar people whose entry is deemed harmful to US foreign policy interests. That leaves Washington room to target anyone from legislators to bureaucrats and other officials. Julius Malema may be a principal target.”

That is his assessment of the South African dispute. Its implications deserve attention beyond Pretoria.

“In practice, the visa restrictions are less a precise legal instrument than a flexible political stick that can be used selectively. They mark another step in the Trump administration’s deterioration of relations with South Africa.”

A flexible stick is useful precisely because those facing it cannot be certain where it will land next.

For African governments, the concern is therefore bigger than whether a minister can board a flight to Washington. It is whether access to a powerful country becomes conditional on accepting its interpretation of domestic policy, its diplomatic priorities and its preferred partnerships.

South Africa’s dispute illustrates how quickly these questions overlap. Washington has also criticised Pretoria’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. A disagreement over domestic legislation consequently sits alongside a confrontation over foreign policy.

None of this places African governments beyond criticism. Sovereignty does not excuse corruption, repression or policies that fail their own citizens. Nor does a government become principled merely by opposing Washington.

Croucamp makes that distinction when assessing Pretoria.

“There is a fair argument that South Africa’s foreign policy is driven less by consistent human rights principles than by ideology and the ANC’s historical relationships. It is a complicated picture.”

It is. But acknowledging a government’s inconsistencies does not give another government an unlimited mandate to determine its choices.

The nineteenth-century gunboat carried power because its guns did not necessarily have to be fired. Its presence demonstrated what could happen if demands were ignored. Visas, tariffs, financial restrictions and access to markets can carry a similar threat.

These instruments differ in purpose and effect. A visa restriction on an official is not equivalent to a tariff affecting an entire industry. That difference is precisely why escalation matters.

Croucamp’s warning concerns South Africa, but the underlying vulnerability is familiar wherever livelihoods depend on decisions made in distant capitals.

“The larger risk is that targeting individuals through visa restrictions makes it easier to escalate to trade measures. Changes to AGOA access or tariffs would hurt far more South Africans than a visa ban. That wider relationship matters more than the visa restrictions alone.”

When pressure moves from officials to economic relationships, the people paying the price may have had little influence over the dispute. Workers, exporters and their families become exposed to a confrontation conducted in the language of national interests.

Africa’s answer cannot end with indignation. Nor can it depend on exchanging reliance on Washington for reliance on another powerful capital.

Greater room to make independent choices requires stronger economies, more trading partners and more trade within Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area aims to create a single market for goods and services and deepen the continent’s economic integration. Making that ambition work would also strengthen Africa’s ability to negotiate.

That requires functioning infrastructure, credible institutions and governments willing to remove obstacles between African businesses. Sovereignty needs practical foundations. A country with few economic alternatives has less room to resist pressure, however forcefully its leaders speak.

Africa is a continent of different states, interests and vulnerabilities. A common response need not mean agreement on every dispute. It should mean recognising the danger of allowing external powers to negotiate with each country from a position of overwhelming dependence.

The gunboats have not disappeared from international politics. But they are no longer required at every harbour. Sometimes a visa restriction delivers the warning. Sometimes access to a market supplies the ammunition.

South Africa is facing that warning now. The rest of Africa should be paying attention to the bigger sticks still within Washington’s reach.

Bertie Jacobs is an award-winning journalist who has been published extensively in a variety of national media publications. He is an alumnus of the North-West University where he completed his honours degree in journalism. He enjoys writing about current affairs, everything sociological, human-interest stories and sport. Bertie is a history and popular culture fanatic and spends most of his free time indulging in one of these pursuits…or traveling.

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By Isaiah Jobs Rwanyekiro

I first met His Majesty King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV when he was 15. I was a young journalist, curious about the boy who had become king at three and grown up before the eyes of an entire nation. In the years that followed, I worked closely with him and the Tooro Royal Family as a journalist and public relations professional. Those encounters gave me a view of King Oyo that no photograph at a royal function could fully convey.

He had an extraordinary story. Crowned in 1995, he drew international attention as the world’s youngest reigning monarch, a distinction recognised by Guinness World Records. Nelson Mandela met him. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi developed a close relationship with the royal family and contributed to the refurbishment of Karuziika Palace. Long before most people could decide who they wanted to become, Oyo was already the face of Tooro to people across Uganda and beyond.

From a public relations perspective, one might call that remarkable visibility. But visibility alone does not explain his hold on people. Many prominent figures are widely recognised and scarcely loved. Oyo’s distinction was that people felt they knew him. They had watched a handsome child grow into a striking, physically imposing man, yet one who remained approachable and quick to smile. He had royal presence without seeming distant. Even those who knew him chiefly through photographs and television felt a personal connection to his journey.

Marketers talk about “top of mind awareness”: the name that comes first when a place or idea is mentioned. For more than three decades, Oyo was top of mind whenever people spoke of Tooro. More than that, he had a place in their hearts. His image at the Kyegegwa boundary always struck me as a powerful expression of it. You saw his face and knew you had arrived in the land of “Entale ya Tooro”.

My professional interaction with His Majesty developed through a series of interviews marking his milestones: Oyo@15, Oyo@16 and Oyo@17, culminating in the much bigger Oyo@18 project, which involved the publication of a world-class souvenir magazine celebrating his coming of age. For me, these were more than assignments. They offered an opportunity to document a young king’s growth and, through journalism and public relations, bring his story closer to the people who had watched him grow up.

The Oyo@18 souvenir magazine was a particularly significant chapter in that journey. It brought together my work as a journalist and my understanding of how a royal milestone could tell a much wider story about a kingdom. Oyo was coming of age, but his story was also inviting people to rediscover Tooro—its history, royal traditions, people and landscapes. My own passion for domestic tourism was shaped, in part, by those experiences and by seeing how affection for a king could inspire curiosity about his homeland.

A public relations professional can arrange an appearance, tell a story and place an image before millions. None of us can manufacture the relationship Oyo built over 31 years. His appeal grew through a rare combination of history, familiarity, grace and the simple impression that he was comfortable with ordinary people. Phenomena like that come perhaps once in a century.

That is why the succession presents more than a ceremonial challenge. Edward Rukidi Nyabongo I can inherit the crown and the palace, but King Oyo’s aura cannot be handed over with the royal regalia. Some subjects are still grieving; others have questions about how the succession unfolded. Their feelings deserve to be heard. The incoming Omukama will have to earn affection in his own way and in his own time.

Many years ago, a girl wrote me a poem whose words have stayed with me: “Another sunrise, another sunset; perhaps another day, week, month or year. But in all these, there will never be another you. That is why I celebrate you and your uniqueness today.” Similarly we may see many other Kings and monarchs installed in Uganda but for sure there will never be another Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV and that is why I write this commemorative article today to celebrate his majestic life.

Those words speak to how I remember Oyo. I hope the new Omukama is given room to build his own relationship with the Batooro. I also hope Tooro honours the king who came before him without asking anyone to take his place in people’s memories. One day the portrait at Kyegegwa may change. For many of us, we will always recall an ever-smiling king who made Tooro feel close to the world, and the world feel close to Tooro.

The writer is the CEO and Founder of Breathtaking Uganda and an avid promoter of domestic tourism. Comments may be sent to irwanyekiro@gmail.com.

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By John Tumwine

Africa’s mining industry is entering a defining era. The global shift towards clean energy, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies has intensified demand for critical minerals, placing the continent at the centre of one of the most significant economic opportunities of this century.

From rare earth elements and graphite to lithium, nickel and copper, Africa possesses the mineral resources required to power the world’s next industrial revolution. Yet history reminds us that natural resource endowment alone does not guarantee economic prosperity. The real measure of success lies not in what lies beneath the ground, but in how countries convert those resources into lasting national wealth.

For Uganda, this moment presents an extraordinary opportunity. Recent geological surveys have confirmed that Uganda possesses commercially viable deposits of more than 50 mineral commodities, with the country’s untapped mineral wealth estimated at between US$4 trillion and US$12 trillion.

Combined with its strategic location within East Africa, an improving regulatory framework and growing investor interest, Uganda is well positioned to emerge as one of Africa’s leading mining destinations.

However, unlocking this potential requires far more than discovering mineral deposits.

It requires deliberate investment across the entire mining value chain; from exploration and extraction to processing, refining, logistics, infrastructure and manufacturing. More importantly, it requires access to patient, long-term capital capable of financing projects whose returns often take years to materialise.

This is where strong financial institutions become indispensable partners in national development.

Mining is among the world’s most capital-intensive industries. Before the first tonne of ore reaches international markets, investors must finance geological exploration, environmental and social impact assessments, licensing, heavy machinery, transport infrastructure, energy supply and processing facilities.

These investments require sophisticated financing structures, robust risk management and long-term confidence in both the project and the country.

Banks therefore play a role far beyond lending. They structure complex transactions, mobilise international capital, provide financial advisory services, manage investment risk and connect local opportunities to global financial markets.

In many respects, finance becomes the bridge between geological potential and economic transformation. Uganda has already taken significant steps towards creating an enabling environment for investment. The implementation of the Mining and Minerals Act, 2022, together with nationwide geological mapping and continued policy reforms, provides greater certainty for investors while promoting transparency, value addition and responsible resource development.

These reforms send an important signal to global investors that Uganda is committed to building a modern, competitive and sustainable mining industry. Equally important is recognising that the future of mining cannot be defined solely by extraction.

Africa must progressively move beyond exporting raw minerals towards processing and manufacturing higher-value products locally. Beneficiation not only creates skilled employment but also strengthens domestic industries, expands export earnings and enables countries to retain a greater share of mineral value within their own economies.

This transition demands significant investment in industrial parks, processing plants, transport corridors, reliable power infrastructure and specialised technologies; all of which require innovative and long-term financing solutions.

At Stanbic Bank Uganda, we believe financial institutions have a responsibility to support this broader transformation. As part of Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank by assets, we are able to leverage deep sector expertise, extensive regional networks and a strong balance sheet to support strategic investments across the mining value chain.

Our role extends beyond providing capital. We work with investors, governments and development partners to structure financing, mobilise international investment and deliver advisory solutions that enable projects to achieve financial sustainability.

This approach is already evident through our involvement in strategic projects such as the Makuutu Rare Earth Project, where we have leveraged Standard Bank Group’s pan-African capabilities to support access to international financing.

Importantly, every investment opportunity must be underpinned by strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles. Responsible mining is no longer simply a compliance requirement; it has become a commercial imperative.

Investors increasingly seek jurisdictions and financial partners that demonstrate a commitment to environmental stewardship, community engagement and transparent governance. The mining sector’s transformation must also extend beyond large-scale commercial operations.

Today, more than 500,000 Ugandans derive their livelihoods from artisanal and small-scale mining. While these miners contribute significantly to local economies, many continue to operate informally, with limited access to finance, technology, formal markets and business development services.

This presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

Through targeted financing, financial literacy, enterprise development and cooperative models, artisanal miners can transition from subsistence operations into productive, commercially viable enterprises. Such an approach not only improves incomes and safety standards but also strengthens national value chains and expands financial inclusion.

Our experience supporting agricultural cooperatives demonstrates that when communities receive access to finance, technical support and structured markets, they become engines of inclusive economic growth. Similar models can help unlock the enormous potential that exists within Uganda’s artisanal mining sector. Ultimately, no single institution can unlock Uganda’s mineral future alone.

Government must continue strengthening policy certainty and infrastructure. The private sector must invest in technology, innovation and value addition. Development partners must continue supporting capacity building and de-risking investment. Financial institutions must provide the long-term capital and advisory expertise necessary to transform opportunity into sustainable growth.

This is precisely why platforms such as the Mineral Wealth Conference remain critically important. They convene policymakers, financiers, mining companies, investors, researchers and development partners around a common agenda: transforming Uganda’s mineral wealth into inclusive economic prosperity.

As global demand for critical minerals continues to rise, Uganda has a unique opportunity to position itself not merely as a source of raw materials, but as a competitive industrial hub within Africa’s emerging mineral economy.

The question before us is no longer whether Uganda possesses the resources.

The question is whether we will mobilise the partnerships, investment and financial innovation required to convert those resources into industries, jobs, exports and shared prosperity.

At Stanbic Bank Uganda, we remain committed to playing our part, as its well stipulated in our purpose; ‘Uganda is our home we drive her growth’. Because financing mining is not simply about funding extraction. It is about enabling industrialisation, strengthening local enterprise, creating sustainable livelihoods and helping build an economy where Uganda’s natural resources deliver lasting value for generations to come. That is how Africa’s next mining powerhouse will be built.

The Author is the Executive Vice President, Public Sector, Corporate Investment Banking at Stanbic Bank Uganda.

The post Why Unlocking Africa’s Next Mining Powerhouse Requires Strong Financial Partnerships appeared first on 256 Business News.

By Hosea Katamba

The recently concluded Mt. Rwenzori Marathon, now in its fifth year, presents a compelling case for what is still possible even in the wake of the grim blow that the Covid pandemic dealt to Uganda’s fragile tourism sector.

The marathon registered 8,000 runners from over 42 countries, a 33% growth from 6,000 runners that were drawn from 36 countries in the previous year. The 8,000 excludes other tourists, service providers, entertainers as well as individuals who participated just for the fun of it. This year, the marathon got certified as a World Athletics Label Road Race earning it prime endorsement at the international sporting level.

In a country like Uganda where tourism remains a key foreign exchange earner, contributing approximately 16% of Uganda’s total export revenues in 2025, there are lessons to be learnt in terms of what can be done to move this figure upward. One of the hurdles that the country faces in its pursuit of rapidly expanding the economy from US$ 50bn in 2023 to US$ 500bn in 2040, is how to diversify its tourism offering.

The National Development Plan IV (NDPIV), the first of 5-year operational blueprint that will deliver the ten-fold growth ambition, cites Uganda’s narrow product range as a barrier to fully exploiting the potential that lies in tourism which earned Uganda UGX 5.8 trillion (US$ 1.62bn) in 2025. To realize the ten-fold growth, government has set ambitious targets, among them; growing foreign exchange earnings from the US$ 1.6bn to US$ 10bn; growing tourists’ length of stay from 7.6 nights in FY2023/24 to 14 nights; and increasing domestic tourism expenditure from UGX 3.6 trillion in FY2023/24 to UGX 7.3 trillion.

This is where the story of Rwenzori marathon ties in. It offers a window into how the private sector and government can collaborate to innovatively expand what Destination Uganda can offer beyond wildlife and nature. The private sector leading as the engine of product creation, investment and service quality, while government creates the enabling infrastructure and conducive environment.

Until the marathon was conceived, Kasese was predominantly famous for Queen Elizabeth National Park, Rwenzori ranges, the Equator crossing in Kikorongo and other geographical features. Now, we have a weekend gateway that lures 8,000 people to Kasese town. But it is what they do on their way, while there and on the way back that is of economic significance to the country.

For example, a survey focusing on one of the organizations whose staff travelled to Kasese for this year’s race, indicated that individual expenditure oscillated between UGX 400,000 to UGX 5 million (depending on their mode of transport and how many people they moved with) during the marathon weekend. By a conservative estimate (using UGX 500,000 as the average spend), the 8,000 runners spent at least UGX 4 billion in the local economy, money that otherwise would not have been spent there. This spend went into accommodation, fuel, meals, entertainment, shopping, roadside food among others.

On top of the individual spend, entities such like UDB gave a financial boost to the marathon, as a way of sustaining the product, which points to the synergies that can be unlocked when the private sector takes lead. This aligns with one of the Bank’s mandate – to enhance Uganda’s attractiveness as a preferred tourism destination, through diversifying tourism opportunities by promoting experiential tourism.

Trends in global tourism indicate that unlike previously where travellers picked a destination first and chose what to do upon arrival, today’s traveller doesn’t treat experiences as afterthoughts. Their travel decisions are increasingly based on specific activity interests. This places experiences at the top of the cone.

A 2023 report by Mastercard Economics Institute on tourism trends found that consumers’ spending on experiences was up 65 percent from 2019. Potentially influenced by social media and entertainment, travellers are landing in lesser-known destinations in search of cultural immersion. Dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which shutdowns affected travel, restaurant dining, and ticketed events reminded consumers of the important role that experiences can play in a well-rounded life.

A sports tourism product such as Rwenzori marathon goes a long way in giving tourists a dynamic way to experience the attractions that Uganda has to offer. We have already witnessed what other groupings such as the Ntare League community have done in this space, by popularizing the idea that droves of people can drive miles to Jinja, Mbarara, Fort Portal and as far as Kigali, purely for sporting activity.

This begs the question. If each of Uganda’s regions, which are already uniquely endowed, created an innovative tourism activity that borrows from the strategic significance that Rwenzori marathon carries, how much revenue would they generate?

Picture an annual festival hosted on one of the islands in Lake Bunyonyi. A multi-day event combining dragon boat races, island‑hopping canoe safari, giant water slide that ends in the lake, campfire meals, sunrise birding and Batwa visits. An annual competitive dragon boat race specially curated for corporate entities would drive participation from Uganda’s middle class.

In Karamoja, a product could leverage the region’s peaks – Mount Napak, Mount Moroto, Mount Morungole and Mount Kadam – to create a guided multi-day trek linking two or more of them. The trek would feature portable camps, porters drawn from local communities, and a finishing certificate/medal. Visitors could as well partake in a bookable gravel-cycling route with stops for farm-to-table dining experiences in the wild and curated craft markets.

Development finance institutions like UDB offer affordable and patient capital requisite for the development of tourism products thereby amplifying tourism’s local economic impact through jobs, SME growth, and multiplier spending across communities. For example, as of 2025, services which include tourism constituted 17 percent of UDB’s portfolio.

Whereas international tourist arrivals increased by 19.7 percent to 1,642,215 visitors in 2025 (surpassing pre-pandemic levels) according to Ministry of Tourism’s Statistical Abstract 2025, only 13 percent of these tourists visited Uganda for the purpose of leisure and holiday, a meagre 0.4% increase from 2024. Positioning Uganda as a competitive destination for especially domestic travellers, will require a private sector that thinks out of the ordinary.

The writer is Senior Investment Manager – Services at Uganda Development Bank

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Phenyo Mokgothu

For generations, millions of people have looked at world maps that make Africa appear smaller than it really is. A recent United Nations (UN) resolution has put that distortion under fresh scrutiny and sparked debate about how the world should be mapped.

A medieval depiction of the Ecumene (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver), constructed after the coordinates in Ptolemy’s Geography and using his second map projection

Dr Nisa Ayob, a senior lecturer in geography at the North-West University (NWU), says the debate goes beyond Africa’s size. It raises questions about how maps shape people’s view of the world and why cartographers must choose the right map for the right purpose.

At the heart of the debate is the Mercator projection. It dates back to the 16th century and was designed mainly for navigation. It preserves direction, which made it useful to sailors.

However, the projection enlarges land masses as they move closer to the poles. Africa lies largely around the Equator. It therefore does not receive the same visual enlargement as Europe, North America and Greenland. South America is also smaller on Mercator maps than its actual size.

“The problem is not that the Mercator projection is technically ‘wrong’; the problem is that it has been used far beyond the purpose for which it was designed,” says Dr Ayob.

Greenland provides a clear example. On a Mercator map, it can appear similar in size to Africa. In reality, Africa is about 14 times larger.

What maps communicate

Dr Ayob says this matters because maps do more than show locations.

Dr Ayob

“Maps are not only technical products; they are also powerful communication tools,” she says.

People rarely calculate the size of continents when looking at a map. Instead, they form a mental picture from what they see. Repeated exposure to distorted maps can therefore affect perceptions of Africa’s geographical scale and significance.

The UN resolution taken in September 2026 has drawn attention to equal-area projections, notably Equal Earth, an equal-area pseudo-cylindrical global map projection invented by Bojan Šavrič, Bernhard Jenny and Tom Patterson in 2018. These maps preserve the relative size of land masses.

The “Correct the Map” resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by African Union (AU) members, passed with the support of 164 nations, including France and the United Kingdom. The United States was the only nation to vote against it and there were six abstentions. The AU’s 54 nations accepted the Equal Earth map in February 2026.

“Africa is not being ‘made bigger’ through these projections; rather, its size is being represented proportionally in relation to the rest of the world,” says Dr Ayob.

No map is perfect

She cautions, however, that no flat world map can provide a perfect picture of Earth. Every projection creates some distortion.

A map can preserve properties such as area, shape, distance or direction. It cannot preserve all of them at the same time.

Dr Ayob says cartographers should therefore select projections according to their purpose rather than simply following convention.

Cylindrical equal-area projection with oblique orientation

She believes the debate also creates an opportunity for South African schools and universities to review the maps they use.

Learners could compare Mercator and equal-area maps. They could then see how Africa, Europe, North America and Greenland change between projections. Such an exercise could help learners understand that maps are constructed representations of geographical reality, rather than perfect pictures of Earth.

Dr Ayob teaches geographical information systems and spatial analysis to undergraduate and postgraduate students. Her work helps students understand how spatial data, cartographic choices and map projections influence the way people interpret geographical information.

A sinusoidal projection shows relative sizes accurately, but grossly distorts shapes. Distortion can be reduced by “interrupting” the map.

“We should not simply replace one wall map with another without explanation,” she says.

Instead, Dr Ayob says students should learn to question the maps before them. They should ask what a projection preserves, what it distorts and whether it is suitable for the geographical question they are trying to answer.

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Drive out of Kampala on any road you like. Take the one to Naggalama, where I went to school. Somewhere past the last trading centre you will pass a plot with a ring beam and no roof. The blocks are good blocks. The windows are bricked up against thieves. Grass is growing where the sitting room will be.

We look at that plot and we call it a stalled project. I have come to see it differently. That house is not stalled. It is on a payment plan — one the owner designed himself, and one no bank in this country wrote for him.

He bought the plot with three years of savings and a sale of a piece of family land. He did the foundation the year his Kikuubo business was good. He walled it the year after. The roof is waiting for a school-fees term to pass. Ask him when he will finish and he will tell you, without embarrassment, “we are still building.” He will be building for eight years. At the end of it he will own a house outright, with no mortgage, no default, and no bank in the story at all.

This is how the great majority of Ugandan houses are actually built. Not by developers. Not by mortgages. By households, in stages, over years, out of income that arrives when it arrives.

We built a system for a market that barely exists

Uganda’s housing deficit is put at about 2.4 million units. We produce roughly 60,000 units a year against demand of about 200,000. Those numbers get quoted at every conference, usually just before someone announces a new estate of two-bedroom units at $60,000 a piece.

Now look at the finance side. Mortgage lending in Uganda has hovered under one percent of GDP for years. Rates sit in the high teens. A mortgage requires a registered title, and around 80 percent of our land is held under customary tenure. It requires a payslip, in a country where most working people do not have one. It requires a fifteen-year commitment from a borrower whose income horizon is closer to fifteen weeks.

So, the formal housing finance system serves the sliver of the population that has a title, a payslip and a long horizon. Everyone else is served by the hardware dealer in Nateete who lets them take twenty bags of cement now and pay at month-end. That dealer is Uganda’s largest housing financier and he has no banking licence.

For a long stretch of my career I sat on the bank’s side of that desk and said no to people whose only fault was that their money arrived in the wrong shape.

What changes when you finance the stage instead of the house

Over the last few years I have worked on lines of credit dedicated to what the sector calls incremental housing: small loans, mostly unsecured or lightly secured, of a size a household can retire in twelve to twenty-four months, tied to one construction stage. The roof. The plaster and floor. The two-room extension that turns a home into a rental. The water tank. The connection to the grid.

One such facility was implemented by Housing Finance Bank, utilizing both our own branches and the Microfinance Department for deployment.  It reached over 8,400 households. The average tenor was about eighteen months. Roughly a quarter of the borrowers were women. Some of it was placed through a boda-boda association, whose members are exactly the customers bank credit policies were designed to keep out.

Two things about that portfolio changed how I think.

The first is repayment. People pay back money that is sitting over their heads as a roof. The delinquency on this kind of lending has been consistently, sometimes embarrassingly, better than on the more “bankable” parts of the book. Risk we assumed was there was largely an artefact of how we were measuring it.

The second is speed. A shilling lent on eighteen months comes back and goes out again. The same money housed several families in the time a single mortgage would still have been in its early amortisation. If the objective is households sheltered per shilling deployed, incremental lending is not the poor cousin of the mortgage. It is the more efficient instrument.

Three things we should stop arguing about

Underwrite the cash flow, not the payslip. A boda rider’s earnings are more visible today than a civil servant’s were twenty years ago — mobile money records, fleet platform data, sacco statements, supplier ledgers. We have the data. What we lack is the willingness to accept it as evidence of income. Every bank in Uganda says it wants to serve the informal sector. Very few have changed a single line in the credit policy that excludes it.

Let the collateral match the loan. A four-million-shilling roof loan should not need a land title and a valuation report that costs a tenth of the loan. Regulation, credit committees and provisioning rules still push us toward secured, long-dated, large-ticket lending. Until the treatment of small unsecured housing credit reflects its actual performance, the pricing and the appetite will stay wrong.

Stop selling houses and start selling stages. Developers and materials manufacturers keep waiting for a mass market that can buy a finished unit. It is not coming at the scale we need. The market that exists wants a roof this year and a floor next year. Whoever builds a proper stage-by-stage product — materials, delivery, technical supervision and credit bundled together — will find demand already waiting.

The unglamorous truth

We will not close a 2.4-million-unit deficit with ribbon-cuttings in Kira. We will close a good part of it by getting behind the millions of quiet construction projects already underway across this country and finishing them faster.

That means our banks, our regulator, our development partners and our housing policy all making peace with an unglamorous fact: in Uganda, a house is not a purchase. It is a process. Our job is not to replace that process with a foreign one. It is to shorten it.

The man in Naggalama does not need us to build him a house. He is already doing that. He needs six million shillings for eighteen months, so that the rain that comes in October falls on iron sheets instead of on his ring beam.

Anthony Kivumbi is the Business Development Manager and Strategic Partnerships at Housing Finance Bank

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By Nikhath Zigmund

Africa’s electric mobility market is emerging where the economics are most compelling. Commercial motorcycles, three-wheelers, buses, delivery fleets and logistics vehicles travel frequently, follow relatively predictable routes and consume significant amounts of fuel.

For these operators, the lifetime cost of a vehicle matters more than its purchase price alone. We are already seeing this shift. Sales of electric two-wheelers in Africa reached approximately 70,000 in 2025, more than 80 times the level recorded at the beginning of the decade. The number remains modest within Africa’s wider transport market, but the trajectory points to a sector moving from isolated pilots towards commercial adoption.

The economics supporting that growth continue to improve. Average battery prices declined by 8pc in 2025, following a 20pc reduction in 2024. Electric vehicles can already offer a lower lifetime cost of ownership in many applications because of reduced fuel and maintenance costs, even where their initial purchase price remains higher.

These savings are particularly relevant for vehicles used to generate income. A motorcycle completing deliveries throughout the day or a bus operating a fixed route can recover a higher upfront cost more quickly than a vehicle that spends most of its time parked. This helps explain why commercial fleets and two-wheelers are becoming important entry points for electric mobility across East Africa.

The vehicle is only one part of the opportunity. Every electric mobility platform depends on charging points, grid connections, battery systems, depots, maintenance networks, digital payment systems and reliable electricity supply. These are the systems that determine whether a fleet can operate consistently and whether the business behind it can scale.

From an infrastructure investor’s perspective, this distinction is important. Vehicle manufacturing can expose investors to changing consumer preferences, competing technologies and individual product risk. Infrastructure serving several operators can offer a different proposition. The opportunity lies in hard assets that support the wider market, generate recurring revenue and can be replicated across cities or countries.

Charging networks, battery-swapping stations and electrified fleet depots become more investable when they are supported by contracted usage, predictable volumes and credible counterparties. Rather than attempting to select the motorcycle or vehicle manufacturer that will eventually dominate, investors can back the infrastructure that different manufacturers and fleet operators will need.

Kenya provides an early indication of how mobility demand can begin to translate into infrastructure revenue. Electricity consumed by electric vehicle charging increased by 188pc in 2025 to 8.43 GWh. Kenya’s dedicated e-mobility tariff charges KSh16 per kWh during peak periods and KSh8 during off-peak hours, creating a financial incentive to charge vehicles when demand on the electricity system is lower.

This connection between mobility and power will become increasingly important. Well-managed charging can create additional demand during periods when generation is underused. It can improve the utilisation of existing power infrastructure and create a new customer base for utilities.

The opposite is also possible. Concentrated charging demand can place pressure on local distribution networks if connections, substations and generation capacity are not expanded in time. Grid planning therefore needs to incorporate the likely growth of electric fleets before constraints emerge.

There is also room for business models that combine charging infrastructure with dedicated renewable generation and battery storage. Solar generation located alongside a bus depot, logistics hub or battery-swapping network can reduce pressure on the grid while improving the reliability and cost of charging.

Africa’s electric mobility opportunity will not follow a single model. Countries with established automotive manufacturing sectors can use existing industrial capability to produce electric vehicles and components. South Africa’s new energy vehicle investment allowance, which took effect in March 2026, provides a 150pc first-year tax deduction for qualifying investment in electric and hydrogen vehicle production assets.

Morocco is following a broader battery value-chain strategy. The country has attracted investment into cathode and anode production and has signed an agreement for a battery gigafactory with an initial planned capacity of 20 GWh. These investments build on an existing automotive manufacturing base and position the country to capture more value from the transition to electric transport.

Markets with large motorcycle and informal transport sectors may follow another path. Their opportunity may lie in local vehicle assembly, battery swapping, fleet leasing and charging networks designed for high-utilisation commercial vehicles.

Not every country needs to manufacture battery cells or complete vehicles. Competitive advantage may be found in components, assembly, maintenance, charging operations, software, fleet management or recycling. The objective should be to identify where each market can build durable capability rather than attempting to replicate the entire value chain.

The central financing challenge is timing. Electric mobility businesses frequently sit between venture capital and conventional infrastructure investment. They require more capital than many early-stage investors can provide, but they may not yet have the operating history, contracted revenue or scale required by traditional infrastructure funds.

Investment in African electric mobility reached almost USD70m in 2023, approximately eight times the level recorded in 2021. Yet the wider clean energy market continues to face a shortage of early-stage equity and project-development capital.

This is where blended finance and specialised transition capital can play a meaningful role. Early investors can support the first depots, charging networks and operating platforms while business models are refined. Concessional capital can absorb specific early-stage risks and help mobilise commercial investment without replacing the need for sound underlying economics.
The aim should be to create businesses that can eventually attract larger pools of institutional capital. Once utilisation is proven, contracts are established and cash flows become predictable, these platforms can move from experimentation to infrastructure scale.

Policy will determine how quickly this happens. Investors need consistent rules governing vehicle imports, charging standards, electricity tariffs, local assembly and grid connections. Incentives can help an emerging sector establish itself, but their greatest value lies in providing sufficient certainty for businesses to invest and build. They do not need to remain permanent. They need to be credible.

Electric mobility offers Africa an opportunity to build more than a market for imported vehicles. It can support new electricity demand, stronger utility economics, local industrial capability and infrastructure platforms designed around the way people and goods move across the continent. The vehicle will remain the most visible part of the transition. The infrastructure around it will determine whether the opportunity delivers.

Nikhath Zigmund is a Senior Investment Advisor to AIIM’s Africa Transition Acceleration Fund, with over 18 years of African infrastructure investment experience. She has led major renewable energy projects in Uganda and Kenya, including hydropower and the 100MW Kipeto wind project. She previously headed Energy for Africa at Fortescue, focusing on green hydrogen. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. 

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