By Phillips Ogile
Lira
BARCLAYS bank on Wednesday May 21 officially confiscated former Lira Spinning Mill from JITCO due to unpaid loan of over 200 million US dollars.
Staff leaving Lira Spinning Mill after eviction (Photo by Phillips Ogile)
A Director of Barclays Uganda plus some security official from the district stormed the Mill on May 21, evicted Jitco staff and replaced them with Barclays personnel.
JITCO, a Chinese company, bought the Mill from the Uganda government in 2004 but sold off all the machinery as scrap. The empty mill is now being used as a store and is let to companies like Lango Organic, Bow Weevil, Mukwano and others.
Recent investiogations by parliamentarians revealed gross misuse of the mill assets by the Chinese company. Members of Lango Parliamentary group will meet the President over the matter.
Some Lango tycoons are poised to take over the mill from Barclays.
The so called “lango tycoons” should really take over this mill……..
Maybe it is time to stop speculating and find a Russian investor who can manage this as there are so many of such spinning mills in the Russian Fed. Afterall , Russia is economically willing to finance its citizens who invest outside the country through the Bank of Economic Development and International Trade (VEB) or “Vnesh-Econom-Bank”. Consultations with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation indicate that due to colonial mentality , many African countries are not even trying to utilise about 8 billion USD / year ear-marked by Russia to Africa south of the Sahara. Now jump to the Chinese ,etc. but that technology is unique and becomes more expensive by trusting the unknown.