Irene Batebe, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development, stated that the Ugandan government is in the process of establishing a National Minerals Company with the goal of supervising the nation’s investments in the mineral industry.
On Tuesday, February 24, 2024, Batebe presented this idea before the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament. The National Minerals Company, she clarified, would be responsible for holding commercial interests in Uganda’s mining subsector, with a particular emphasis on investing in strategic minerals like cobalt and rare earth elements.
In order to guarantee the operationalization of the company’s investments, the Ministry is actively collaborating with the Ministry of Finance on capitalization while also getting ready to pilot the company’s investments through the Kilembe Mines project.
In order to optimize value, Batebe underlined the significance of value addition in Uganda’s mineral industry and cited the government’s policy directive prohibiting the export of raw minerals. She compared the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), which manages the government’s business holdings in the petroleum industry, to the planned National Mining Company.
In order to ensure sustainable resource exploitation, UNOC, a fully government-owned limited liability company, oversees state participation in petroleum activities and investigates new business opportunities in the industry. According to the Petroleum (Exploration, Development, and Production) Act of 2013, the company’s duties include proposing new petroleum-related initiatives and overseeing the state’s involvement in petroleum-related activities.
