Investors should avoid NRM state patronage like plagues
Investors should avoid NRM state patronage like plagues If I had Madhvani's money and wanted land elsewhere outside Busoga, the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, is the last person I would want as a pitchman. Do not get me wrong; the dictator is still strong and not about to abdicate soon. Moreover, he still commands rapt attention from a retinue of patronised clients and hangers-on, who have instant access to the state, political power and resources. Therefore, an investor who wants shortcuts and decision by diktat, rather than through a market of free sellers and buyers; paying fair market prices; would find statehouse powerbrokers, the president and kick-back dependent ministers, good contacts. However, a serious industrialist whose forefathers painstakingly built his inheritance and industrial portfolios through painstaking savings, strategic investments decision-making and shrewd avoidance of obvious market and political risks, would shun like a plagu...