Uganda wants to expand its airport at Entebbe by investing USD400m in the project, 200m of which is intended to go into terminal building. I travel frequently through Entebbe indeed the airport is getting congested especially the departure check-in however that is all. I have earlier written about why we should not revive Uganda airlines. I was the last chairman of the airline and I literally closed it after it had made loses totaling to over USD7m. The background for this loss is another story but it came out as a result an indecision of government. Indeed government cannot do business. Through in my subsequent writings, I have supported government ownership of business especially startup and funding.
Let my friends in CAA not think I am being personal, I am not. I am looking at the big picture as to where do we invest the money. It is possible that for the next three to five years, traffic at Entebbe airport can be handled in the present terminal building. To me what needs to be done is to improve the departure handling, possibly expand the space in the existing building and improve the efficiency of handling passengers. Definitely the cargo area needs to be quickly improved and expanded. It is an eyesore in the airport complex.
In the article that appeared in the East African Business Week of September 1-11, 2014, Paul Tentena who reports on this ambitious project talks about the expansion of Jomo Kenyatta in Nairobi, Julius Nyerere airport and many others in Africa. Kenya has been growing in traffic. If I am not mistaken, its figures maybe possibly 5 times what Uganda handles. It has made improvements in the existing airports and I guess they got onto a stage where they could no longer use the existing airport. They are about to complete a new terminal. According to the 2012 statistics, Kenya’s annual passengers was 6.4m people while Uganda had slightly over 1million passengers in 2013. The investment decision at the national level I guess in the Ministry of Finance and for us to invest as a small poor country, we must borrow. I am sure if the CAA can recover this money, then it is good investment. I am aware of a previous loan of USD 60m which has ben lying somewhere being unpaid. Possibly they have paid it by now.
If I were the PSST, this project would not pass if they do not have capacity to repay the money. The City airport in London (a pretty small airport) has over 3.3million passengers a year. What is the magic? Magic is in efficiency in timing and handling. It is possible we need more investments in the roads, I wouldn’t put my money yet on an expanded airport investing USD 400m.
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