OIL & GAS: SUPPLIERS URGED TO REGISTER THEIR BUSINESSES
Only 36 suppliers from Nwoya district have registered, while 360 suppliers have registered countrywide.
By Christopher Nyeko
NWOYA: The enterprise development officer for the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), Mr. Kintu Peter Kenneth, has directed all the local suppliers in the Albertine oil region to register their businesses on the national supplier’s database if they want to reap big from the oil sector.
Kintu was speaking recently during a supplier symposium organized by Total Energies Uganda in partnership with G360 at Nwoya district headquarters.
The supplier’s symposium was to create awareness, build capacity, create linkages between the supplier’s contractor and the petroleum authority of Uganda, and also sensitize the suppliers on how best they can market their products.
According to Kintu, local suppliers from the districts of Nwoya, Pakwach, Kikuube, Buliisa, Hoima, Masindi, and Nebbi are favored to supply their local goods to the contractors in oil projects because they are natives.
Kintu says in a bid to promote national content, the government of Uganda has ring-fenced the supply of goods and services like telecommunication services, human resources, and stationary work to only the local supplier
He explained that in order to register their business with the national suppliers’ database, the suppliers are required to present the company registration certificates of incorporation, Uganda Registration Service Bureau annual returns, tax clearance certificates from Uganda Revenue Authority, National Social Security Fund clearance certificates, and bank reference letters.
According to Kintu, only 36 suppliers from Nwoya district have registered, while 360 suppliers have registered countrywide.
Denis Okot, secretary of the Malika OG Honey Group from Koch-Lii subcounty, says they are hardly struggling to register their business since they lack the necessary requirements for registration.
He hopes that if their apiculture is registered, they will get opportunities to supply any contractor in need of bee products such as honey, wine, and wax because they are currently producing about 5 tons of honey on an annual basis.
Tugume Allan, accountant at Delight Enterprise Uganda, says their businesses are fully registered, thereby making them regularly contracted by contractors who need fresh fruit.
Jacob Ojok Pa Lwak, secretary for marketing and production in Nwoya district, however, challenges the local suppliers to embrace quality post-harvest handling of their produce if they want their products to be most desirable in the market.
Ojok therefore urged the government to establish a storage facility for some cooperatives in the district to ensure issues of aflotoxins, reportedly common in the area of Nwoya, are addressed.
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