Namayingo District Monitoring Team led by the Deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Trevor Solomon Baleke, and comprising the LC5 chairperson, Ronald Sanya, the District Executive Committee (DEC), DISO, DPC, District Crime Intelligence Officer, CAO, and technocrats this week embarked on a comprehensive monitoring of the CN Namayingo Sugar factory projects to establish its capability as required by the government.
Odako Zadoko, the Namayingo District Commercial Officer, and the District Physical Planner, Brenda Auma, served as the technicals in the three-day monitoring movement where the high-powered team discovered the interesting status of the sugar factory.
During the fieldwork, Odako informed the media on Friday, July 19, 2024, that they were impressed to find that the factory had over 1175 acres of planted sugarcane plantations reportedly ready for processing into sugar.
He said they discovered that the size of the plantations visited so far was much more than the 500 hectares required by the government.
“We have so far established one thousand one hundred seventy-five (1175) acres which are even beyond the required 500 hectares. I believe that by the end of this verification field tour, CN sugar would prove that it has the potential,” Odako stated.
He said, “As technicals, this is our mandatory role to establish and verify the relevant requirements as needed by the government.”
This comes after the trade ministry closed CN sugar factory, the Namayingo-based cane mill, over allegations of failing to establish a nucleus estate.
The government, through the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperative, in June 2024 issued orders to close the under-construction sugar mill on the grounds of failing to own at least 500 hectares of land as the initial and core ground for the company to commence operations.
By press time, the team had visited CN’s plantations only in Namayingo district, yet the factory says it owns more cane and chunks of land in Busia and Tororo districts.
“They are saying they are already tired, but for us, we want to take them even to Busia and Tororo to show them our plantations there. We are going to talk to their team leader (RDC) to give us another day and we visit those districts before they can make their final report,” said CN Namayingo Sugar Manager, Rashid Kakungulu.
Despite being given a certificate of no objection in 2022, CN sugar’s permission was revoked with the government urging the baby company to identify alternative land in the area outside the Busoga sub-region where they could acquire substantial land to establish a nuclear estate.
“Reference is made to your application to establish a sugar mill in Namayingo dated September 30, 2022, and the no objection letter issued to you on November 9, 2022, with a condition that you establish a nucleus estate of about 500 hectares, but during the verification exercise it was discovered that only 121 hectares were established,’’ reads part of the government letter dated June 17, 2024, and signed by Francis Mwebesa, the minister of trade.
But Deputy RDC Mr. Baleke stresses that their visit is aimed at verifying what CN claims to own and to ascertain whether it is not a briefcase company.
“We have been having a belief that this company (CN Sugar) is a briefcase that had nothing on the ground but we have been impressed when we had a tour to establish that the company owns huge acres of sugarcane plantations ready for processing. It has also developed Kifuyo and Nsango villages so much with the modern structures they have constructed there as staff houses. Therefore, this is a very good basis we shall use to brief the minister,” Baleke told journalists on Friday.
The first deputy prime minister and minister for East African Community Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga, is set to visit the sugar company on August 7, 2024, to determine its stability in the sugar sector. This is after 5000 locals led by the district LCV chairman petitioned her for help to ensure they don’t lose their only investor.
The deputy RDC said that their report as the local authority on the ground shall play a significant role in permitting or declining the operations of the sugar mill located at Nsango village in Kifuyo parish, Buyinja subcounty Namayingo district.
CN sugar, a multibillion factory based in Namayingo, joins Kakira Sugar in Jinja, Mayuge sugar, Kaliro, Kamuli, and Bugiri sugar, which Ronald Sanya, the Namayingo district boss, advocates its existence to create employment opportunities for the Busoga educated and uneducated young people.
“Namayingo has no factory or any other company. It can employ between 600 and 1000 youths and old people in Namayingo. In fact, many would be directly employed, and several would be indirectly employed in the company. I hereby advocate its existence and operation because it has all the requirements,” Sanya said.
Under construction, Kakungulu says the factory, if successfully permitted to operate, would commence business by next year. In fact, about 200 people are currently employed, handling the construction works and also taking care of the sugarcane plantations and gardens under preparation for planting the crop.
It remains in the hands of the government to set the ball rolling for the sugar mill to start off.
However, the mill comes at a time when sugarcane farmers and dealers are grappling with cane price fluctuations with the current price of shs130,000.
