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The European Union (EU) has partnered with the German Development Agency to commit a grant of EUR 6.25 million (UGX 25.7 billion) as a form of support for the formalisation, skilling and equipping of artisanal and small scale miners.
His Excellency Mr Jan Sadek, the European Union Ambassador to Uganda revealed the details at the 13th Annual Mineral Wealth Conference held at Serena Hotel, Kampala last week.
H.E Sadek noted that a considerable portion of the grant will be geared towards increasing the capacity of artisanal and small-scale miners to process minerals and add value to them.
“Additionally, this programme is intended to provide institutional support to the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines, the National Environment Management Authority and other concerned authorities on aspects such as mine site inspections and digital licence management,” Mr Sadek said.
In the coming months, the EU will also provide an additional grant of EUR 3.3m (UGX 13.6b) aimed at collecting high quality data on Uganda’s promising prospects with regards to critical and other minerals.
H.E Sadek noted that the aim is to present the data in an attractive manner to potential investors and to use it for promotion exercises at noteworthy local and international forums such as Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
The EU also supported the Department of Geological Surveys and Mines with a grant of over UGX 3 billion for drilling of iron ore at 7 locations in Kigezi, and the data from this exercise has been made available.
H.E Sadek, while quoting the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Secretary to the Treasury, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi,noted that the government’s plan to grow the Ugandan economy 10-fold by 2040 is anchored on a number of sectors, among them most prominently the mineral development sector.
The mineral sector has been earmarked to play a transformative role for Uganda’s economy underlined by the key enablers for the development of the sector such as the role of international partnerships, in particular the EU-Uganda partnership to harness the sector’s potential.
“The first enabler is a predictable, transparent and fair regulatory environment. As you know, it is imperative for investors to have a clear understanding of how the sector will be run, how much royalties and fees they ought to pay, the processes for acquisition of licences, and the thresholds for value addition as envisaged in the regulations that accompany the Mining and Minerals Act,” H.E Sadek said.
He added that potential markets for Uganda’s mineral resources and their derivatives are more and more putting in place measures to exclude sourcing inputs from areas where mining activity exacerbates conflict, thereby making it imperative that Uganda’s mining sector is transparent, free of conflict and human rights violations.
On this enabler, Sadek congratulated Uganda on her admission to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and encouraged the Government to continue its implementation of the ethos of this initiative and to run a transparent and conflict-free sector.
The EU has dedicated specific attention to improving the traceability and transparency of mineral resources value chains as well as support to promote compliance with environmental and social standards, ensuring the sustainability of the sector and the creation of high quality jobs.
The joint efforts seek to create sustainable and reliable value chains for critical raw materials and other minerals, where all players can maximise the benefits of their resource endowments and know-how, unlocking the potential of the sector as an engine for economic growth and job creation.
The second enabler of the mineral development sector is the accompanying infrastructure, especially in terms of transport and energy infrastructure.
“It goes without saying that affordable energy is particularly critical for value added processing and mineral beneficiation. In this regard, I would like to commend Uganda for its significant investments in electricity generation, transmission and distribution in recent years, working towards its objective of universal energy access in 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2060,” Sadek remarked.
Sadek identified the third enabler of the mining sector being the availability of appropriate technology and skills, both within the public services that regulates and oversees the sector, as well as among the private sector and the Ugandan labour force that works in the sector.
He acknowledged the considerable efforts that the Ugandan government has made in skilling its citizens and urged the need to develop skills and enhance capacities in the mining sector – especially for the artisanal and small-scale miners.
H.E Sadek concluded by calling for the availability of sufficient high quality geological, geophysical and geochemical data as an absolute necessity for the development of the mining sector.
“The availability of data not only reduces speculation, but is also needed to attract more high quality and long-term investments into the sector,” he said, noting that good quality data would also provide considerable leverage for the soon-to-be-established Uganda National Mining Company during negotiations with potential concessionaires.
The EU as a committed partner of Uganda for her energy transition is currently putting together a support package for the rehabilitation of the Nalubaale and Kiira Hydropower Plants, which are critical for providing affordable electricity to the Ugandan economy.
More precisely, EU grants of a total of EUR 30 million (UGX 123 billion) have been put forward, allowing to mobilise favourable loans from the French Development Agency and the European Investment Bank to this end.
Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa while making her remarks at the conference noted that the government had embarked on putting in place regulations to support National Content development to undertake a Baseline Survey (Study) meant to establish the current status of national participation and understand the available opportunities for Ugandans.
Nankabirwa noted that there are ongoing efforts to register artisanal miners under the Biometric Registration project, and to date, over 5,000 artisanal and small-scale miners have been registered.
She noted that the registration will greatly advance their formalization and licensing to work in the established artisanal mining zones.
On transparency, the Energy Minister said, in May 2024, Uganda was assessed on its progress in implementing the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) Standard, achieving a moderate score.
The assessment found that Uganda fully met fifteen EITI Requirements, mostly met eleven requirements, and partly met only three requirements