The Uganda Parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has asked the Turkish community to invest in Busoga tourism sector in order to grow the Uganda region’s tourism potential and create employment opportunities for the people.
A group of Turkish investors who visited Uganda on a fact-finding and familiarization mission were taken on the Busoga tourism circuit led by The Speaker, the ambassador of Turkey to Uganda, Sedef Yavuzalp, and the Ugandan ambassador to Turkey, Johnson Olwa Agara, the group toured the Source of the Nile in Jinja before they headed to Bishop James Hannington memorial site in Kyando, Mayuge district, Kagulu rock in Buyende district and Budhumbula mausoleum in Kamuli district. They also toured Kadaga’s Century hotel, which is still under construction in Kamuli town, before they were hosted for lunch at the speaker’s home in Mbulamuti.
The investors included those that deal in real estate, tourism and oil and gas. Among them were Erdal Aliska, the regional manager of Petoil, which is Turkey’s leading conglomerate in oil exploration and tourism, and Vakur Yilmazyigit, a foreign trade manager of Pref-Pre Engineering Camp Site Bridging Company.
“It has been an exciting trip and we hope that it will yield concrete investment interest in some of the sites that they were able to see,” said Edward Baliddawa, the Kigulu North MP and coordinator Busoga Tourism Initiative (BTI).
Speaking to the press at her home in Mbulamuti, Kadaga revealed that the investors had been wowed by the source of the Nile.
“They think the source of the Nile has a big potential. They want to put up a five-star hotel,” Kadaga said. She added: “We want a hotel so that people can stay longer.”
Turkish Ambassador Sedef Yavuzalp, who has been in Uganda for only four months, said there was a lot of potential in Uganda that she wants her countrymen to invest in. “All the places I saw, they are nice and need to be invested in,” she said. She revealed that the Turk Exim bank had ready finances to avail the investors.
The source of the Nile is one of Uganda’s key attractions that remains heavily neglected with dilapidated infrastructure. It was recently voted one of the seven wonders of Africa, and thereafter declared by Unesco as a world heritage site.
Kadaga said she has had three meetings with different Turkish investors. “My little experience with the Turkish is that they are serious people. They see an opportunity, they act immediately,” Kadaga said.
