UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | The business success story of the Nile Group of Companies is nothing short of inspirational, now with its 30 prominent subsidiaries.
The senior proprietor of the Nile Group is Mr Patel Magan, born to farmers in a small village called Suhuri in India. He arrived in Nairobi in March 1975 and came to Uganda following the overthrow of Idi Amin.
During visit to Uganda by Magan Patel in 1996 as a relatively younger man, and saw lots of business and investment opportunities. Yet at the time he lacked the ready money to take them up.
He went back to India, where he spent close to four years assembling startup capital and reaching out to many people to create joint ventures.
Patel returned to Uganda in 2000 and set up a trading company dealing in soap, cooking oil, wheat flour and other household items. In his trade, Patel says he noted Uganda has vast agricultural resources and investor-friendly policies, which motivated him to venture into agro-processing, giving birth to Nile Agro Ltd.
With support from his business expertise and exploiting Uganda’s conducive business and investment atmosphere, Patel slowly but surely grew his business and investment collection.
As a result, several industries that substituted imports came up under the confines of the Nile group of companies owned by Patel and like-minded business partners.
Jay Patel Jr, Nile Group’s Chief Executive Officer, says their business empire now has 30 subordinates and is one of the top employers and taxpayers in Uganda.
According to the Director for Corporate Affairs, Francis Baganze, the group employs 12,000 Ugandans directly and 50,000 indirectly.
In two decades, Patel now chairs a business empire in the centre of the front row of Uganda’s economy, given its bay is import substitution.
Some of the key investments, besides a string of trading companies, are Nile Agro Ltd, Nile Aluminium Ltd, Nile Batteries Ltd, Nile Wheat Ltd, Nile Agrichem Ltd, Auro Meera Paper Ltd, Modern Laminates Ltd, Nile GM Plastics Ltd, Modern Rubber and Cable Ltd, and associated recycling plant among many others.
These industries are all structural and aimed at import substitution, hence, contributing to the reservation of foreign exchange.
The Nile Group of Companies’ Investment in the Real Estate Sector
To Patel, Nile Group’s investments and businesses focus on positively affecting the economy and Ugandans.
Through producing pre-fabricated construction materials, the group seeks to cut Uganda’s housing deficit of over 2.5 housing units.
They would also like to stimulate industrial development by providing cheap construction materials and reducing the setup time of industrial facilities like factories and warehousing.
Developing Industrial Parks
In response to the government policy of promoting the development of private industrial parks, Nile Group advanced the idea of establishing an industrial zone that concentrates most, if not all, of their industries to enjoy synergies and economies of scale collectively. The group purchased a 1000 acre land to set up MMP industrial park, one of Uganda’s largest private industrial parks.
Curled up between the industrial areas of Mukono and Jinja, the park’s location is in the Buwampa in Buikwe District. The land conveniently touches the Mukono-Katosi-Jinja highway and Lake Victoria and is close to the Uganda-Kenya railway line.
Besides the 12,000 Ugandans, the group will directly employ 15,000 Ugandans at MMP Industrial Park and over 100,000 indirectly.
The Nile Group of Companies invited the President of Uganda, H.E Yoweri Museveni, to break the ground for the construction of the industrial park, with a solid allegiance to see the investment through.
During the inauguration, President Museveni said the Nile Group is well-positioned to access a bigger market in East, Central, Southern Africa and the whole of Africa.
“I congratulate you because you’re far-sighted, you’re suitable partners, you know what you’re doing,” said the President.
On incentives, President Museveni said Nile Group would benefit from all incentives like companies operating in industrial parks, adding that the government’s focus is not on direct taxation but indirect taxation.
The Nile Group is testimony that Uganda’s friendly and supportive investment policies are enough for investors to take off and accord with economic growth and development, even without direct government support of such as incentives.
What sets the Nile Group aside is that they have asked for incentives after already doing so much solo, like setting up 30 companies and building a private industrial park.
President Museveni promised the Nile Group land for the pharmaceuticals park. He said, “we want drugs made here.”
Speaking at the same event, the state minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite, said Uganda is experiencing fundamental change and is on the proper industrial and transformative path, adding that “Uganda is no longer a big supermarket for others.”
Two years down the road, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Nile Group has continued building the industrial park. Over nine industries are operational.
Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) has played and continues to play a pivotal role in ensuring that MMP Industrial Park takes off.
The Authority has facilitated the building of important infrastructures like industrial water and power and lobbying for the construction of tarmac roads to and within the industrial park.
Robert Mukiza, the Director-General of UIA, said the MMP industrial park sits well with the Authority’s mission of promoting relevant and fair industrial development of Uganda.
Patel Jr, the CEO of Nile Group, said they hold the principle of “live and let live,” divulging that they will build 50 boreholes per year in the area as part of their corporate social responsibility. The group also ensured that squatters on the industrial park would receive adequate compensation for allowing the smooth set-up of the park and deepening harmony with the locals.
It was no wonder then that President Museveni thanked Patel and his partners for investing in Uganda.
“I would like to thank Magan and his partners for coming to Uganda to help us develop our country, but also for having good spectacles,” the President said, adding that “they know that in Africa, Uganda is the centre, is peaceful and we’ve [we have] rich resources.”
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