Africa is Open for Business: Museveni Tells UK Minister as Uganda and Britain Deepen Economic Ties

ENTEBBE — President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has made a direct and pointed appeal to British and European investors to turn their attention to Africa, telling the United Kingdom’s most senior minister for the continent that the era of overlooking Africa’s economic potential is over.

The call came on Thursday, July 2, 2026, during a formal meeting at State House, Entebbe, between President Museveni and the Rt. Hon. Baroness Chapman, the UK’s Minister of State for International Development and Africa. The two held wide-ranging discussions on strengthening the longstanding diplomatic and economic partnership between Uganda and the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on accelerating investment flows, deepening trade cooperation and unlocking new avenues for mutual economic growth.

Museveni was unambiguous in his message. He argued that deeper investment partnerships between Africa and Europe were not merely desirable but essential — crucial to advancing value addition, driving industrialisation, creating jobs and expanding the trade routes that link both continents. Africa, he told the minister, possesses enormous potential that remains significantly underutilised, and now is the time for British and European capital to play its part in realising it.

The meeting builds on a growing momentum in the Uganda-UK economic relationship. The United Kingdom has already invested more than £1.3 billion in Uganda, with an additional £1 billion in the pipeline — figures that reflect a partnership already substantial in scale, even before the ambitions discussed on Thursday are acted upon. New initiatives under Uganda’s Ambition for Ten-fold Growth Strategy — which targets agricultural exports, power transmission infrastructure and nationwide solar-powered irrigation systems — represent priority areas where British investment is expected to play a significant role.

The discussions form part of a broader pattern of high-level economic engagement Museveni has pursued with the UK in recent months. In February 2026, the President hosted a high-level UK-India-Uganda Multi-Sectoral Trade Delegation at State House, Entebbe, which included representatives from the Westminster Africa Business Association, led by CEO Laurence Robertson, and the South Asia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led by Chairman Mahendrasinh Jadeja. That meeting, also attended by British High Commissioner H.E. Lisa Chesney, produced an agreement to develop a formal tripartite framework to fast-track trade and investment collaboration across manufacturing, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, ICT, logistics, tourism infrastructure and youth skills development.

Museveni has consistently outlined the same core investment case to foreign partners: Uganda and Africa more broadly possess abundant raw materials and a rapidly growing, young population, but require capital, technology and knowledge partnerships to translate those advantages into industrial production and export growth. He has pointed to affordable electricity, low-cost financing through the Uganda Development Bank, and improving transport networks — including regional railway connectivity and oil pipeline infrastructure — as the foundations on which productive partnerships can be built.

Baroness Chapman’s visit signals that the United Kingdom, recalibrating its global economic relationships in the post-Brexit era, is paying closer attention to Africa as a destination for development investment and trade partnership. Her ministerial portfolio — spanning both international development and Africa — places her at the intersection of exactly the kind of economic diplomacy Kampala is keen to encourage.

President Museveni welcomed the Baroness warmly and expressed appreciation for what he described as the enduring and cordial relationship between Uganda and the United Kingdom — a relationship he indicated he was determined to see grow significantly in the years ahead.

Source Nile Post