Since 2015, there has been talk about town of Uganda’s defunct Airline making it back on track. The revival of the national carrier, the Uganda Airlines, has been seen as something that will bring back the nation’s lost glory given that all her neighbors have fully operating national passenger carriers.
In fact, President Museveni has been quoted to mention it that the “lack of a national airline is a ‘big shame.’”
Like we told you mid last year, the government signed an order for four CRJ900 regional jets with Canadian manufacturer Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, and thus set April 2019 as the time to resume the operations of the Airlines.
To this, delivery of the four planes was slated to start in January with the first handover of a CRJ 900 jet, but this was pushed to February – a month in which we witnessed the plane doing a test flight in Canada, but with a no show on the Ugandan soils.
It is at that point that we learnt of the Ministry of Works and Transport extension to a new launch date from April to June 2019.
Who owns Uganda Airlines?
The question first surfaced in February 2017, when it was learnt that an individual had taken out a patent on the Uganda Airlines company name in the Uganda Registration Services Bureau. The answer to the question was not answered at the time.
Now the latest contest is on how much shares the government of Uganda has in the Airlines. During the the parliamentary sitting to approve UGX 280 billion to enable government secure the delivery of two of the planes from Canada, there was a new twist in the events when a revelation in regards to the company shares was made.
It had been recommended that Uganda National Airlines Company Limited should allocate shares to the Works and Finance Ministries, which would later divest them to the public on the stock market.
But according to Lira Woman MP, Joy Atim Ongom, there was a need to first detail the proof regarding ownership of Uganda Airlines suggesting that the Airline is 99.9 per cent privately owned by an undisclosed individual(s).
“The share capital of Uganda National Airlines Company Limited is 200 million divided into 2 million shares. Of the 2 million shares only 2 shares worth UGX 200 to Minister of Works and Transport as well as Ministry of Finance. This makes both ministries to be minority shareholders holding only 0.0001% of the shares. At the moment the owners of the 99.9% shares are unknown. The owners will only be determined when the Directors decide to allocate the shores. lt was asserted that the majority shores will be floated to the public.”
The chairperson of the Budget Committee, Hon Amos Lugoloobi would later read to Parliament a document from the Registrar of Companies that shows that the Ministries of Works and Finance each own one million shares.
He was backed by the Minister for Works, Eng. Ntege Azuba who lay on table documents showing 100 per cent ownership of the Airline by the government.
The UGX 280 Billion supplementary expenditure
While the deal to buy the planes was signed last year, there was no money exchanged at the time. It is believed that during all this time, the Ministry of Works and Transport has been putting pressure on parliament to approve the supplementary budget for the purchase of the planes.
With time running out, the funds for the purchase are supposed to be availed as soon as possible because any further delays means that Uganda will have to incur costs of insurance and parking fees as the planes lie idle with the manufacturer.
The required UGX 280 billion has to be made by March 29 or else the manufacturer will push Uganda’s aircraft orders aside to 2022. Parliament suggests that the amount is expected to be partly financed through the proceeds from the renewal of the MTN Uganda license amounting to $60 million.
But there have been question marks on why the government is investing close to $30 million in the Uganda Airlines, a company that has a share capital of only UGX 200 million.
Update: Parliament eventually passed the Supplementary request of UGX 280 billion as development expenditure to the Ministry of Works and Transport for the purchase of the Bombardier aircraft ordered by the national carrier, Uganda Airlines.
