Oil body aims to boost local skills, labour

New UCMP vice chairman Patrick Mweheire and UCNP chairman Dr Elly Karuhanga

• Written by CHRISTOPHER TUSIIME

Ensuring that many Ugandans acquire the skills to participate in the oil industry will be one of the main targets for the new leaders of the council of the Uganda Chamber of Mines and Petroleum.

Building local content in Uganda’s oil industry remains a buzzword as the country moves to ...

producing its first barrel of oil by the year 2020.

However, few Ugandans have the skills and the capital to exploit the opportunities that abound.

“Before any oil gets out of the ground, a lot of money is going to be invested in the economy – somewhere between $10 billion and $15 billion. That is almost 50 per cent of Uganda’s GDP,” said Patrick Mweheire, the new vice chairman of UCMP, and also chief executive of Stanbic Bank Uganda.

He added: “So, the questions we have to grapple with are, ‘What can we do as a chamber to unblock particular areas that will allow us to harness this opportunity?’ and ‘What are the challenges in our way?’ among others.”

He was speaking recently during a cocktail by Stanbic bank for the new leaders of the UCMP council. For Uganda’s oil industry to have a stronger impact on the economy, experts say building local content remains paramount.

According to the 2014 Industrial Baseline Survey (IBS), titled, “A survey to foster opportunities for Ugandans in the Oil and Gas sector”, Uganda’s petroleum sector will generate 100,000 to 150,000, direct and indirect jobs.

Laws have been put in place to ensure that local content is respected, with some going on as far as ensuring that foreign companies enter into shareholding partnerships with Ugandans.

Recently, the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU) released a list of 293 entities which had been successfully verified and qualified to be on the 2017 National Supplier Database for Uganda’s oil and gas sector.

A total of 753 entities submitted applications before the closing date of May 15, 2017; with 501 of the applications received from companies registered in Uganda and 252 from companies registered in 32 countries outside Uganda.

Still, the issue of lack of skills among Ugandans makes it hard to enforce these local content policies and regulations.

“There is a lack of depth in a numbers of very remedial skills along the value chain whether it’s driving, welding, fabricating, name it. These gaps can be filled with skilling and training and a little bit of guidance,” Mweheire said.

Dr Elly Karuhanga, the chairman of the UCMP, said they will continue holding discussions with government to ensure that local content is built.

“The chamber will continue to engage the state through a special committee to ensure that the upcoming Local Content law addresses all our concerns so that many Ugandans can participate in the sector.”

As such, the UCMP will hold its first skilling convention on September 20, 2017, to supplement what some companies have already been doing, albeit at individual company level.

The event, which the Education minister, Janet Museveni, is expected to grace, will be open to everyone, including the private and public stakeholders plus the donor community, according to a statement from UCMP. The UCMP will participate in a similar skilling forum in Tanzania in January, 2018.