Uganda's mineral production value has significantly increased from Shs 19.92 billion in 2020/2021 to Shs 202 billion in 2021/2022, according to the country's third Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) report. The report highlights that 20 out of 558 active mining license holders remitted at least Shs 6 billion to the government, accounting for 98.82% of the total mining revenues earned. Key drivers of this growth include limestone, iron ore, and pozzolana.
Cover Story — The value of Uganda 's mineral production has jumped from Shs 19.92 billion in 2020/2021 to Shs 202 billion in 2021/22. That is one of the findings from the country's third report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative , a global standard monitor for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources, based in Oslo, Norway.
Wolfram did not feature amongst minerals produced in 2020/2021 but its production was valued at Shs 6.8 billion for 2021/2022. Meanwhile, gold production value also increased from Shs 1.96 billion to Shs 3.42 billion. Mugambe said the decision to include companies that contribute at least Shs 6 billion to government coffers; technically called the"materiality threshold" for the second and third reports was agreed by the Multi Stakeholder Group .
"The result of that is that we do not have a complete picture from the company's side in terms of how much money they paid during the reporting period that is where the reconciliation gap came from and that is why we went ahead to publish the report with only the URA figures but are still working with the companies that have not yet submitted their reconciliation figures so that we get the whole picture," she said.
Mugambe also noted how, during verification of some of the data, her team is sometimes left frustrated when it goes on the ground to verify the information. Mugambe said the lack of compliance by companies like Virat Alloys which categorizes itself as manufacturing company and yet it is within the threshold of mining are the ones which continue to bring about the big reconciliation gap.
Sebagala noted that the same applies to the query on why there could be export data but no production data. He said when the government suddenly decrees that there should be no more export of some minerals, the companies involved are stuck with what they have mined. But, it appears, those who continue to operate the levers of the sector, right from far-flung mining areas in the countryside to the boardrooms in Kampala, are not about to embrace the EITI standards and regulations, as findings from the third EITI report show.
The EITI Board wants the government to fix those gaps. Mark Robinson, the Executive Director of the EITI Board who visited Kampala in August advised the government that"the disclosure of contracts by all EITI member countries is a must, not an option." "It's just fair that even if Uganda didn't join the EITI, the government should be informing citizens about the deals it is making with their natural resources. It would be in the interest of the government to make sure that citizens know what the government is doing with their natural resources so that they can develop the confidence they need from them in order to harness peace and harmony.
"Our work involved understanding the dynamics of contracts. We agreed to meet industry and that meeting was led by the Chairperson of the MSG and in that meeting, we actually got the agreement in principle; that the industry would not mind sharing those agreements. The next level was to go back to the higher levels to meet people with the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy; the Executive Directors of government agencies and that was done.
"Looking at these contracts deeply creates an opportunity for us to identify gaps that might exist, where leakages are in terms of revenue, and where opportunities for corruption exist. I think this is something we should appreciate as institutions of government; that transparency and accountability actually works to our advantage."
MINERAL PRODUCTION UGANDA ECONOMY REVENUES EITI
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