Late last year, the conversation about when and how Uganda would be ready to start extracting oil raged on. But many were concerned about how Ugandans would benefit from the natural resource? Parliament granted Kasanda North MP Patrick Nsamba leave to introduce a Private Members’ Bill on Local Content Bill in the Oil and Gas Sector.
The Local Content Bill 2017 sought to provide for the establishment of a National Local Content Committee, the maximization of value addition and job creation through use of local expertise, goods, and services, businesses and financing in all undertakings where public funds are used. It also sought to regulate where the undertaking was a licensable activity.
The development of Local Content plans and the supervision, coordination, monitoring, and implementation of local content. State Minister for Transport Henry Bagire launched a training school for drivers specifically meant to serve in the Oil and Gas Sector. The Minister said that the school would produce 2,000 truck drivers for the sector. “An anticipation of Oil production, we should be prepared with the skilled drivers ready to take advantage of these opportunities” Said, Minister Henry Bagire.
The Minister said the government was also concerned with the number of deaths in road accidents and it expected the training would help instill discipline among the drivers. “My Ministry had initiated plans to the review and amend the current Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 and this is before the cabinet with very stringent measures, very punitive measures for those ones that are causing death traps on the road.” Said, Minister Henry Bagire.
The three-year government project was supported by other implementing partners including GIZ, Safe Way Right Uganda, and UKAid. “We are dealing with training of trainers, we are training about 15 instructors at the moment. Am hoping to then have 12 competent trainers at the end of this project who are going to train hundreds or even thousands of drivers.” The government provided land in Mukono where the school would be set up but the training was on-going. Eight drivers had already graduated and the project expected to produce 800 trainers by 2019.
