David GOMBE
Former SC Villa President Immanuel Ben Misagga says Uganda should stop the habit of building other countries and start building our own. He believes the Ugandan government needs to move beyond the talk about empowerment and go into deliberate policy.
Misagga asserts that China government backs chinese companies with machinery, financing,and soft loans and that’s why five companies can bid for a project in Uganda.
On the recently completed Hoima Stadium, Misagga stated that while Ugandan engineers were mixing cement and digging trenches, Turkish foremen and engineers were doing the skilled and technical work.
“Look at the recently completed Hoima Stadium, a beautiful facility built by Turkey’s Summa. It is a world-class project, and Summa did a fine job. But walk onto that site during construction, and the reality was stark: Turkish engineers and foremen were doing the skilled, technical work, while Ugandans were mostly mixing cement and digging trenches. Now, spare a thought: what if the contract had stipulated that 20 Ugandan civil engineers had to be embedded with Summa’s team, learning to operate that specific machinery and manage that scale of project, with the goal of them being able to build a stadium on their own within the next decade? That would be real legacy.”
The former SC Villa administrator believes companies such as SUMMA who constructed a world class Stadium are financed by their own government.
“And here is the kicker: Summa, like many of these giants, is partly financed and promoted by their own government. They have the muscle of the Turkish state behind them. So, why are we competing against state-backed behemoths with one hand tied behind our backs? Concluded Misagga
Misagga also criticised the governmsnt over the habit of bringing in foreign firms to build roads and then years later bringing in another foreign firm to patch the potholes.