The three-phase $120m project manufactures metallic construction materials. The operational first phase is a galvanizing plant with a capacity of 12,000 metric tonnes of galvanized wire per annum.
The second phase is a steel rolling mill, which uses billets and steel scrap to produce high tensile iron bars and other steel products. It becomes operational in November with a capacity of 72,000 metric tonnes.
The final phase of the factory will be a cold rolling mill that will produce galvanized and pre-painted galvanized iron sheets with a capacity of 120,000 metric tonnes. This phase becomes operational next year.
Museveni hailed Roofings for helping Uganda industrialise and hence develop.
“That’s more than what we earn from coffee in a bad year when prices are low,” he said.
The tool room machinery factory will also pay taxes amounting to sh100b. “That’s enough money to run five districts annually,” Museveni explained. “If we attract more investors like this, our country will develop.”
Roofings is run by Sikander Lalani, one of the 230 investors who were allocated plots in the industrial park.
Museveni emphasised that private rather than public companies propel development because they are more efficient.
“European countries are developed not because they are more intelligent or endowed with more resources than us, but because they have factories yet we concentrate on potato growing,” Museveni observed.
Lalani thanked the Government for creating a climate that enables investment.
He requested the President to ensure “uninterrupted power supply”, grant the firm a tax holiday upon commencement of phase three, an additional 10 acres of land to de-congest the plant, a tarmac road and a railway line to the factory.
Source: newvision.co.ug
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