Aligning Destination Branding, Industrialisation, and Investment Coordination
📍 UK–Africa Business, Trade & Investment Summit 2025
📅 12 September 2025 | The Royal Horseguards Hotel & One Whitehall Place, London
Uganda’s delegation at the 15th UK–Africa Business, Trade & Investment Summit delivered a unified and transformative message — that tourism, trade, and industrialisation are not separate policy pillars but interdependent engines of national transformation. Together, Juliana Kagwa, Nelson Tugume, Hon. Francis Mwebesa, and Eng. Elias A. Mugisha presented a coordinated vision of inclusive growth powered by value addition, creative storytelling, and investor confidence.
Juliana Kagwa, Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), described tourism as a vital form of economic diplomacy — a soft power that amplifies Uganda’s global visibility and trust.
“Tourism is not a backdrop to growth — it’s the stage on which Uganda’s brand is performed.” – Juliana Kagwa
Under her leadership, UTB has adopted a digital-first approach to destination marketing. A new multimedia content bank shared with embassies and trade missions allows Uganda to project a consistent, experience-led image worldwide. Through this storytelling model, tourism becomes the emotional and cultural gateway to trade and investment.
Nelson Tugume, CEO of Inspire Africa Coffee, linked agribusiness to culture and tourism, presenting the Africa Coffee Park — a USD 300 million initiative uniting coffee processing, youth employment, and tourism experiences. He explained how Uganda, the birthplace of Robusta coffee, can move from exporting raw beans to exporting culture and experience.
“Tourism, coffee, and culture are different expressions of the same story — transformation through value creation.” – Nelson Tugume
The Africa Coffee Park integrates production with storytelling, positioning coffee as both an export commodity and a lifestyle brand rooted in Ugandan identity and pride.
Hon. Francis Mwebesa, Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, provided the policy framework for Uganda’s transformation agenda. He reaffirmed that the Tenfold Trade Growth Strategy is grounded in export diversification, SME empowerment, and industrial upgrading. Mwebesa hailed the new direct Uganda Airlines route from London to Entebbe as a symbol of renewed trade connectivity.
“Connectivity is commerce. When the planes move, business follows.” – Hon. Francis Mwebesa
He invited UK investors to participate in Uganda’s industrial parks and special economic zones — particularly in agro-processing, textiles, and light manufacturing — aligning trade policy with production capacity and export readiness.
Eng. Elias A. Mugisha, Private Secretary to H.E. the President of Uganda (Infrastructure & Public Works), offered a perspective on execution and accountability. He outlined how Uganda’s investment coordination framework integrates energy, infrastructure, and industry to support investors with practical delivery mechanisms.
“We have moved from policy alignment to execution alignment — where every investor finds an accountable partner.” – Eng. Elias A. Mugisha
His remarks reflected Uganda’s evolving investment climate — one that prioritises facilitation, reduces bureaucratic delays, and provides investors with a direct partnership channel through State House’s one-stop coordination model.
Together, these leaders outlined Uganda’s Integrated Growth Framework — a cohesive model linking image, innovation, and implementation:
This integrated approach represents a new era of governance — where creativity fuels commerce and policy delivers results.
Uganda’s transformation agenda is cohesive, creative, and coordinated. From Juliana Kagwa’s tourism diplomacy to Nelson Tugume’s agribusiness innovation, Hon. Mwebesa’s trade facilitation, and Eng. Mugisha’s investment coordination, the message is unified and powerful:
“Tourism tells our story. Trade sells our story. Investment builds our story.”
Uganda’s emerging model moves beyond extraction to experience-driven development — where culture, commerce, and capital work together to deliver sustainable prosperity.
