By Agency
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Thursday launched Lake Victoria Logistics, a company aiming at reducing the cost of transporting fuel in Uganda.
Lake Victoria Logistics was founded in May 2015 as Mahathi Infra Uganda with a vision to change the petroleum logistics for Uganda and other landlocked countries like Rwanda, Burundi and DRC that get their oil through Uganda. In 2018, President Museveni laid a foundation stone and today he officially launched the facility.
During the launch at Bugiri-Bukasa, Kawuku-Entebbe Road, President Museveni expressed gratitude to Lake Victoria Logistics/Mahathi Infra Uganda for investing in Uganda.
“I’m very happy about this move. Mahathi you have helped us. I don’t know how much cheaper it is because you didn’t give us the figures, but I imagine that it is much cheaper than it was. The most important thing is for you to come to the market of Uganda and once you enter our market, you are talking about the market of DR Congo, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and so on. So, this is really a goldmine for investors,” he said.
President Museveni also revealed that the economy of Uganda has been able to grow progressively due to the right strategy of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.
The board Chairman of Mahathi Infra Uganda, Dr. Steve Mainda said the transportation of fuel in Uganda has been limited to road transport which has worked for many years but with challenges and inefficiencies.
He however noted that with the coming of Lake Victoria Logistics company, such inefficiencies will be no more.
“The vision of this project is to establish a more efficient and sustainable solution to decongest the roads, ease border post traffic and reduce turn-round time and cost of moving fuel from Mombasa to this place. We have invested USD100 million in this project,” he said.
Dr. Mainda further noted that the company already has two state of the art tank ships, made in Uganda, each with a capacity of 4.5 million litres.
The facility also has an entirely new logistics ecosystem for the region’s fuel by setting up 14 storage tanks with collective storage capacity of 70,000,000 litres. This is the largest fuel storage capacity in Uganda and in East Africa.”
Dr. Mainda also informed the President that they have set up a 256 metre-long jetty in Bugiri-Bukasa, thus facilitating the berthing of vessels and enabling efficient cargo handling.
