Investors eye Uganda for bamboo sector development

East Africa study tour organized as part of the Dutch-Sino-East Africa Bamboo Development Programme reveals untapped potential of bamboo sector.

Investment in Africa’s bamboo sector offers huge opportunities for people, planet and businesses. Realizing this, The Dutch-Chinese East African Bamboo Development Programme (Phase II) recently organized a Bamboo Investor Study Tour in Uganda in order to connect international and local financiers with on-the-ground enterprises.

Taking place in Kampala, Uganda, the tour lasted from 7 to 8 May 2024. In total, 23 investors from the US, UK, India, UAE, Norway, Kenya and Uganda were in attendance. The main objective of the tour was to encourage both foreign and domestic investment in the bamboo industry, with a particular focus on Uganda and other countries involved in the program.

Welcoming the investors, Mr. Tom Okello Obong, Executive Director of the National Forestry Authority (NFA), mentioned that Uganda is one of the few African countries that has included bamboo in its national strategy, despite the plant’s many benefits across so many different sectors. In Uganda in particular, bamboo has the potential to enhance the restoration of the forest landscape and to meet the demand of wood-based and non-wood-based industries. Uganda’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, in partnership with the World Bank, is promoting the planting of bamboo to restore forest cover on private land through the Project to Enhance Forest Landscape Restoration by establishing bamboo plantations across 12,000 hectares in 31 districts. Furthermore, in partnership with INBAR, the Dutch-Chinese East African Bamboo Development Programme has developed a bamboo strategy and action plan, bamboo value chains and market assessment, and also facilitated knowledge transfer. Taken in aggregate, the project has helped foster a favorable investment opportunity.

Mr. Teshome Toga Chanaka, INBAR Director General, delivered the keynote address. In his speech, he highlighted the wide range of bamboo investment opportunities that can cater to both local and non-local investors, responding to different needs. Often, the bamboo sub-sector is patronized by end users who purchase bamboo products from primary producers for value addition. The INBAR-Dutch-Sino East Africa Bamboo Development Programme has created an enabling business ecosystem for the investor to invest in the bamboo sector to achieve not only environmental benefits but also generate green job creation.

Mr. Jayaraman Durai, INBAR Director of Global Programme, gave the closing remarks, mentioning the potential value chains of the bamboo sector in Uganda and other East African countries. Over a period of seven years, INBAR has worked tirelessly with its partners to create an enabling environment for investment in the bamboo sector.

The investors visited the Uganda Investment Authority One Stop Centre in Kampala as part of the tour. Ms. Hope Waira, Senior Investment Executive of UIA, interacted with the investors and highlighted the benefits of investing in Uganda.

Mr. Einar Haveland, an investor from Norway, mentioned that his company EcoPole requires 1.5 million poles of highland bamboo per year to run its business operations. Uganda has the advantage of growing highland bamboo, helping improve the incomes of smallholder farmers and forest communities through cultivation and sustainable harvesting. Electric transmission poles made from bamboo can positively impact natural resources and the climate while also creating direct employment and income through ancillary activities such as forest management and agroforestry production. Crucially, this can also support the development of women’s leadership in a natural resource-based economy. The company is keen to establish its operations in Kampala due to the geographical advantage of operating in Central and East Africa. Currently, the company has a business operations unit in Nairobi. The investors also visited Bamboo Uganda Limited, where they saw bamboo plantation areas and interacted with bamboo farmers and growers.

For more, see the story by NTVUganda: