PRIME MINISTER RT. HON. ROBINAH NABBANJA LEADS HIGH-LEVEL STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT ON UGANDA’S TOURISM IN PREPARATION FOR 6TH BI-ANNUAL CEO FORUM AT THE OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER ON WEDNESDAY, 27TH AUGUST 2025.
The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), in collaboration with the Presidential CEO Forum (PCF), convened a high-level preparation meeting on Wednesday, 27th August 2025, ahead of the 6th Bi-Annual Private Sector CEO Forum (6th BAR) scheduled for 9th–11th September 2025 in Fort Portal Tourism City. The meeting brought together government officials, private sector leaders, development partners, and strategic planners to align on actionable pathways for accelerating Uganda’s economic transformation, with a particular focus on tourism as a key growth sector.
Delivering her remarks, Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja, Prime Minister of the Republic of Uganda, applauded the PCF for linking government and the private sector while championing private sector growth across various ministries and departments. She emphasized that the NRM government’s strategy centers on tenfold economic development, with value addition across all sectors, from agriculture and tourism to science and technology. “Uganda is among the fastest-growing economies. We have moved from least developed to middle-income status, and if we continue empowering the private sector, the sky will be the limit for this country,” she said.
The Prime Minister highlighted four critical enablers for economic growth: affordable financing, reliable and low-cost transport including rail and water links, cheap electricity, and accessible labor. She noted ongoing government efforts to strengthen infrastructure, including connecting industrial hubs to electricity, to facilitate local production and global competitiveness. She also underscored the importance of reducing poverty through economic empowerment, noting that the proportion of Ugandans living below the poverty line has fallen from 68% in 2014 to 33% today.
During the engagement, Ms. Irene Birungi Mugisha, CEO of the PCF, provided a comprehensive update on the Forum’s ongoing work to prepare for the 6th BAR. She highlighted that the Forum’s thematic focus this year is tourism, as commissioned by H.E. the President during the 5th Bi-Annual Retreat in 2024. Since August, the PCF has been facilitating conversations to understand the challenges and opportunities in the sector, ensuring that the government is fully informed and strategically positioned.
Ms. Mugisha explained that the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities has been leading the process, coordinating multiple stakeholder dialogues covering media, top tourism investors, and the creative sector. The media discussions focused on ensuring that journalists and content creators are informed partners in promoting Uganda’s tourism. Engagements with investors addressed operational challenges, including taxation, and identified pathways for expanding Uganda’s visibility globally. Discussions with the creative industry emphasized the need to harness cultural and creative outputs as key drivers of tourism promotion and revenue generation, with the government pledging to support evidence-based policy interventions that empower creatives to amplify Uganda’s tourism potential.
Mr. Allan Kayongo, Senior Planner at the National Planning Authority, reaffirmed Uganda’s bold ambition of growing tourism earnings from $1 billion to $10 billion under the NDP-IV, aligning with Uganda’s Vision 2040 and the tenfold growth strategy. He emphasized that achieving this requires deliberate efforts to increase tourist arrivals, expand hospitality infrastructure with accessible financing, strengthen Uganda’s tourism branding in the competitive East African market, and add value beyond the country’s natural and cultural assets.
Mr. Kayongo also highlighted that tourism growth depends on unlocking key fundamentals: affordable financing for investors, robust infrastructure including airports and domestic transport, skills development for tourism professionals, and reliable data to guide decision-making. He stressed that tourism has the highest multiplier effect of any sector, meaning that every dollar invested generates significant economic impact across the economy.
The meeting further highlighted the importance of aligning strategic interventions captured in the National Development Plan IV (NDP-IV) with practical private sector action. This ensures that policy recommendations prioritize high-impact initiatives while coordinating roles, responsibilities, and timelines between government and private sector actors.
This high-level engagement is part of the many stakeholder consultations leading up to the 6th BAR, where outcomes from these discussions will directly inform policy and investment decisions to unlock Uganda’s tourism potential and accelerate economic transformation under the Uganda First ideology.