Uganda UK Youth Convention - Part 2/2

These blog entry is a continuation of the Youth Forum one, click here to access that

Business Conference

 I suspect the youth forum was ran on the back of a major business conference, which I suspect was set-up to “advertise the Uganda brand” to potential investors (especially) within the diasporas community.

I was most impressed as the first lady, finance ministers, and other key representative came from Uganda to attend the event.  Well, one could argue that they should be there anyway.

Key highlights

1.     They are now able to put tags in animals so that they can easily be tracked or identified if they are stolen. The speaker did not deliberate on what technology was used, but I sense it might be RFID.

2.     Confirmation was made that the current government had built about 1,400 units of housing for teachers. Am assuming this is part of the strategy to help  those in key sectors of the Economy.

3.     The government is making effort to put money directly into the hands of the people, this will enable them to determine their own destiny. The money are said to be paid directly into special bank accounts. Not sure they confirmed how much money was being paid, and the conditions being used.

4.     The finance minister confirmed that Uganda is a high value destination country, and there is an ongoing effort by the government to set-up a product known as “Disapora bond”.  Bond is a debt security, under which the issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay them interest (the coupon) and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed the maturity. Government (Fixed Income) and Corporations (corporate bond) do issue such bond to raise capital.

5.     Selling point to the audience is that there is less concern in terms of exchange rate effect if they subscribe to the bond as they (diasporas) are in it for the longer term. This point I might disagree with, as an investor it is essential to build such effect into the investing model, and might go as far as including inflation rate (which according to Indexmundi website, the inflation rate in 2011 was 18.7%).

6.     It was boldly stated that Uganda has never defaulted on it’s debt obligation since early 2000 when it was forgiven of it’s debts. A well bold statement there, but would have liked to know what the government had in stock if it all go pear shaped. Judging by the lesson of Greece especially, we can assume that “Bonds” are not 100% cast iron guarantee to be paid, even the Sovereign type.

Considering the ministers and co where trying to sell a great idea to potential would be investors, I will recommend the following changes to be made next time they organise such event. Take note that I only attended the first session of this Business conference, hence the recommendation are based on that only.

1.     The presenters or ministers should have some sort of slide up for the attendees. The “first lady” was more or less reading from the script, which obviously then mean there was not enough eye contact with the audience. Those of you that know and appreciate presentations or presenters will understand where am coming from.  

2.     Present all the necessary figures/stats, and in accurate format. Key statistician from the Bank of Uganda was on the panel, but he never quoted nor presented any hard figures. You just can’t say that a the country is the best to come do business, one should have figures such as the interest rates, inflation rate, yield curve, poverty rate, income inequality metrics, etc. The figures should be also be benchmarked against international standards (e.g. against OECD targets). These were the kind of figures I expected the statistician to present.

3.     There was a lady on the panel that was into credit rating, but throughout the discussion, she actually never quoted what the rating for Uganda was at the moment as defined by the major credit rating agencies. Exhibit 1 shows you what S&P currently rates Uganda as, based on data from the site as of 15 Sept 2012.

4.     There is need to ensure that microphones are thoroughly tested before the start of the conference. Fiddling about with the microphones not only wasted precious time, but it also remove some sort of flow between handovers to personnel.

5.     They should also ensure that there is less moving about of people, this is essential to prevent distractions.

6.     The advertisement slides that were rolling when guest speakers were giving their presentation were not only highly distracting, but also very annoying. On the basis that I agree that those sponsors were more or less funding the free conference, recommendation is that the organisers find a better way of getting the message across. For example, there could be one advertisement put on the slide throughout one presentation, and then changed when there is another person speaking. The advertisement strategy employed, actually mean I can’t remember who the advertisers were and what products they were marketing. 

Exhibit 1 - Uganda Credit Rating