“As Uganda slowly moves closer to becoming an oil-producing nation, the likely beneficiaries need to be empowered with knowledge of both likely benefits and liabilities,” says Ann Juuko, the Stanbic Bank managing director.
Oil production from the Tilenga project operated by Total and the Kingfisher project operated by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is expected to start in 2025 and reach a combined 230,000 barrels a day.
That would take Uganda past Gabon, which according to OPEC was the seventh-largest oil producer in Africa last year at 186,000 b/d.
Juuko revealed that even as Ugandans are expectant of a financial windfall, Stanbic has undertaken sponsoring monthly workshops to talk about issues surrounding the oil sector, which include policy, investment, employment opportunities, taxation, agriculture, housing, transport, hospitality and tourism, and how each one of these will fuse into the oil and gas sector.
“Each month, we will bring specialists from a particular sector to educate Ugandans on issues surrounding a selected area of discussion,” she said adding that since in the very first workshop, set for mid-May, they will discuss taxation, they will bring officials from Uganda Revenue Authority, Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum, UNBS, among other bodies.
She said that if Ugandans are to optimally benefit from the oil and gas sector, they would need to be educated about the linkages that connect this nascent sector to other parts of the economy.
“The real work in getting Ugandans interested and involved in oil production starts with capacity building,” she said while speaking at the closure of the 8th Annual Oil and Gas convention 2022 at Serena International conference center recently.
Juuko said Stanbic has made available part of the sh5b, which is their annual budget for their incubation centers, to offset expenses for the monthly workshops. The bank has so far managed to set up incubation centers in Hoima, Mbale, Gulu, Kampala and Mbarara.
Employment opportunities will present themselves in their thousands in the multi-billion dollar oil project which will see the construction of the world’s longest heated pipeline and make landlocked Uganda an oil producer for the first time.
The 1,443-km pipeline, to snake via Uganda and Tanzania, will complement the oil refinery.
Earnest Rubondo, the executive director of Petroleum Authority Uganda said that the oil and gas sector is set to provide Ugandans with 150,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs over the next few years.
Source: New Vision