The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Matia Kasaija, on Wednesday September 28, 2022 commended business Ham Kiggundu for establishing a complete integrated food processing unit along the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway.
In an interview with the New Vision, Kasaija who paid Kiggundu a visit thanked the businessman for investing quite a good amount of money in establishing the food processing unit.
“He is outing up silos, processing up plants and bringing up some ecosystem to make the process very green. He has a show room where the products he would have added value will be showcased. It’s a commendable job and if I can have more 20-30 Ugandans doing a similar thing around the country, then the future will be very bright,” Kasaija said.
Kiggundu through his Ham Agro-Processing Industries has set up an integrated agro-processing industrial park and plans to set up 10 important crop and livestock production zone locations in Uganda.
Kasaija becomes the second minister to visit Ham Agro-Processing Industries within a period of five months.
In April this year, the Minister of State for Investments, Evelyn Anite lauded Kiggundu for creating jobs and opportunities for young people.
Anite visited the premises in the company of a team of officials from the Free-Trade Zone Authority.
According to the businessman he decided to set up the agro-processing industries and planned to build more specialized processing plants in the major agricultural zones across the country in the future, in line with the with crop and livestock resource endowments specific to each agro-ecological zone in Uganda.
Uganda has 10 agro-ecological zones comprising of: North-eastern Dry lands; North-eastern Savannah Grasslands; North-western Savannah Grasslands; Parra Savannahs; Kyoga Plains; Lake Victoria Crescent; Western Savannah Grasslands; Pastoral Rangelands; South-western Farmlands; and the Highland Ranges.
Kiggundu’s integrated agro-processing industrial park is a dedicated cluster of large, medium and small scale food processing units. It will be facilitated with common basic and modern infrastructure such as, internal roads, cold storage units, food laboratory, effluent treatment plant, warehouses (incubators), electronic weigh bridge units, information and communication centers, guest houses, cafeteria, recreational zones along with common security arrangements, which we are currently setting up in the first place.
Kiggundu has also put in place ancillary units like packaging, printing, transportation agencies, clearing and forwarding agencies among others to support the common activities of the food processing units.
The integrated agro-processing industrial park will also put its priority on business dealing with high value-added fresh fruits and vegetables, and food processing industry, which have comparative advantages in quality.
The businessman says export promotion of priority industries will be the important mission of the project development.
He said he will target the East African Community (EAC) and Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) regional markets as well as the European Union (EU) countries and the Gulf States which would be the most promising export markets for processed foods and fresh fruits and vegetables produced by the Ham Agro-Processing Industries IAIPs Project.
The project plan has the following main features: modern infrastructures, and factory construction;
cold stores; water and electricity supply; capable sewage systems; paved roads that can absorb the movement of wagons and semi-trailers; parking areas, container park, open 24 hours a day, with continual human and electronic guard duty; vehicle assistance Centre for immediate mechanical needs for cars, for fuel distribution and for vehicle wash; a dumping site for wastes.
It also has; a daily public transport system during working hours connecting the industrial and logistic areas with the nearby urban centers; communication infrastructure; offices of the operators, postal, banking, customs, currency exchange, catering and data transmission services; veterinary service and laboratory analysis for quality control; export office, which work to export the products to EAC, COMESA and other Countries; marketing office, promoting products and exploring new markets opportunities; free movement of people and products through low restrictive checkpoints, and thanks to the advanced planning technology; among others.
