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What was designed to attract investors, create jobs and stimulate industrial growth is now under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
The Auditor General’s December 2025 report on Licensing and Investor Support Services at the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has laid bare serious operational weaknesses that are delaying — and in some cases sabotaging — investments meant to power Uganda’s economy.
UIA is mandated to register qualified investors and track their progress to ensure that the incentives lead to the intended economic outcomes.
But according to the audit, the systems put in place are not working as intended.
Applications for domestic investment incentives have been rising steadily, from 147 in FY2022/23 to 159 in FY2023/24 and further to 186 in FY2024/25. This surge reflects growing investor confidence and interest in government support schemes. However, instead of rising to the occasion, the Authority’s internal weaknesses appear to be slowing down the very momentum it should be nurturing.
The audit established that although UIA has systems such as the One Stop Centre, the eBiz licensing system and the My Investor Monitoring and Evaluation platform, “these mechanisms have not been fully effective in ensuring timely licensing and comprehensive monitoring of investors.”
The average time taken to license a domestic investor increased from 7 days in FY2023/24 to 11 days in FY2024/25. While this may appear small on paper, in the fast-moving world of business, such delays can mean missed opportunities, stalled capital and shaken investor confidence.
The report points to incomplete applications, unclear guidance on the online system and the absence of key agencies on the platform as major contributors to the delays. Instead of a seamless digital process, investors are encountering bottlenecks.
Deferred applications tell an even more troubling story. Cases deferred rose from 29 in FY2022/23 to 64 in FY2023/24 and further to 79 in FY2024/25. Many applications lacked required documents or contained errors. At the same time, many investors did not regularly check the online system for feedback, prolonging the process.
But this is where critics argue UIA’s sloppiness shows. Why is guidance unclear? Why are digital prompts insufficient? Why are investors left guessing about missing documents in a system meant to simplify business?
The One Stop Centre, which was designed to centralise approvals, has not lived up to its promise. The audit notes that some approvals could not be completed within the Centre because not all relevant agencies were fully integrated. Investors often had to revert to manual processes, slowing down access to incentives.
Worse still, planned regional One Stop Centres in Namanve, Mbarara and Arua were never established, and the existing facility in Mbale could not be operationalised. Investors outside Kampala have therefore been forced to rely on the central office, limiting timely access to support.
For a country pushing regional industrialisation, this centralisation raises serious concerns. Investors in upcountry areas face additional logistical burdens simply because UIA failed to operationalise promised facilities.
Monitoring of investors after receiving incentives appears equally weak. The audit found that UIA lacked a dedicated Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. Monitoring activities were carried out separately by departments “without central coordination.” The result, according to the report, is fragmentation that leads to “inconsistent data, duplication of effort, and limits the Authority’s ability to track investor performance and assess the effectiveness of investment incentives.”
Investor performance data was mostly self-reported, with minimal verification through field visits or checks. Only 28 percent of licensed domestic investors submitted complete information via the online system.
This means that billions in tax incentives and support are being monitored largely through unverified self-reporting.
The My Investor online system, meant to track performance, experienced frequent downtime and slow loading. It was not integrated with the eBiz licensing system, forcing investors to re-enter information. The audit warns that these limitations discourage submissions, necessitate costly manual follow-ups and reduce efficiency and data accuracy.
In its overall conclusion, the Auditor General did not mince words, noting “several gaps that limit effective management of investment incentives,” including delays in processing licence applications, inadequate integration of regulatory agencies into the One Stop Centre, failure to establish regional centres, weak communication on deferred applications, and challenges with the functionality and integration of the M&E system.
The absence of a dedicated M&E Officer and limited verification of self-reported data further constrain effective performance tracking, the report points out.
“When incentives are delayed, investors wait. When investors wait, projects stall. When projects stall, jobs disappear before they are even created. Uganda’s investment incentive framework is too important — and too costly — to be managed with fragmented systems, incomplete integration and unreliable monitoring,” opines an investment expert.
The question now echoing in policy corridors is whether it is time to crack the whip at the top. Robert Mukiza is the Director General of the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA).
“With rising investor demand and increasing government expenditure on incentives, weak systems and sloppy coordination risk undermining national economic ambitions.
“If the Authority does not urgently strengthen system integration, improve licensing efficiency, enhance communication and reinforce monitoring, the very incentives meant to drive economic transformation could continue to be slowed down from within. And in the competitive race for regional investment, Uganda should not afford self-inflicted delays.”
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