News
Uganda’s rising star wins bid to buy 15 pc stake in RVR consortium
Financiers have committed $120m to fix RVR. Photo/FILE
Posted Monday, August 16 2010 at 00:00
Suspicions are rife in Uganda that well-connected individuals are angling to hive off the Kasese and Pakwatch segment of the concession.
It is unlikely that any investor will want to own a branch line whose economic viability will ultimately depend on an RVR-controlled main line.
The motive for Uganda’s insistence on taking these two branch lines back is crony capitalism — apparently, somebody wanted the Egyptians to pay.
In a sense, the Egyptians are in a tight corner because of their own folly.
The viciousness with which they bought out the shareholders of RVR is what fed into the perception that they would pay any price to get the concession under their control.
Unfortunately, Uganda is the only stakeholder in the concession that has not benefited from the largesse of the Egyptians.
Powerful players have calculated that there will be money to be made from holding on to the lines by selling them later to the Egyptians at a premium.
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