By Our Reporter

Entebbe: President Museveni yesterday August 17, 2023 met a delegation from Stabex International led by their Executive Director, Mr. Jack Chebet at State House-Entebbe.

Stabex International is one of the dynamic and progressive entities redefining the landscape of fuel and gas industry in Uganda and the larger Africa with an unwavering commitment to innovation and marketing sustainability.

Apart from the oil and gas sector, President Museveni and Stabex International officials discussed other possible areas of investment in the country.

President Museveni rallied the company to invest in the manufacturing/ processing sector so that they are able to add value to Uganda’s raw materials.

“The Wananchi are the out-growers but if you want to be involved in the dairy processing, then we can try to get you some land to set up a core demonstration farm. Start with the processing, then you work backwards because Ugandans do a lot of farming themselves. That is a better way to factor in out-growers,” President Museveni told the officials who expressed interest in investing in Uganda’s agricultural sector.

Mr. Chebet informed the President that Stabex International presents a unique investment opportunity that promises substantial growth potential and ensuring value in Uganda and beyond.

“Your Excellency, Stabex International is a Pan-African company whose regional headquarters are in Nairobi, Kenya but we are thinking that as soon as possible when we start producing our oil in Hoima, our headquarters might move here so that we are able to distribute to a larger East and Central Africa from here,” he said.

“We have a very strong regional presence here in Uganda. We are in all parts of Uganda. We have done this to improve reliability of petroleum products to all parts of Uganda and also stability of prices. We have over 100 stations spread across Uganda.”

Mr. Chebet also disclosed that for the last 10 years, they have invested over USD100 million in Uganda and the company is injecting another USD40 million over the next 18 months in different projects in this country.

He further told the President that they are planning to set up a cylinder manufacturing plant in Uganda.

“We want to set up a cylinder manufacturing plant to promote import substitution and create employment opportunities for Ugandans. If we can be given space in one of the Industrial parks and we set up this plant, we shall really appreciate it. We also want to put up a plant for lubricants when the oil refineries are up and running. This will help to save a lot of foreign exchange. We are really ready to invest in that space,” Mr. Chebet noted.

He also informed the President that they are considering investing in large scale production of agricultural products.

“For over 10 years we have been involved in various agriculture projects and we have the capacity and expertise in that sector. We request for your support to set up a project in a bigger way.”

Mr. Chebet on the other hand, thanked the President for the stability and conducive business environment in the country through which his visionary and dynamic leadership has enabled companies like Stabex to achieve a lot of progress.

On the issue of setting up a cylinder manufacturing plant in Uganda, President Museveni welcomed the idea before assigning the Vice President, H.E Jessica Alupo to accord the company all the necessary assistance to ensure that they realise their goal.

“For the electricity costs don’t worry. We are pushing it down to 5 cents for manufacturing in order to lower the operational costs,” President Museveni said.

The meeting was also attended by the Vice President, Jessica Alupo.