When the towering glass-and-steel structure of Uganda Business Facilitation Centre (UBFC) rose above Kololo Hill, it gleamed with promise.
Funded jointly by government and the World Bank, the centre was billed as the future of doing business; a sleek one-stop shop where entrepreneurs could register companies, acquire investment licenses, and obtain permits without the usual bureaucratic pilgrimage from one dusty office to another.
Conceived under the Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP), a World Bank-supported initiative, the idea was simple; bring key agencies such as Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), and Capital Markets Authority (CMA) under one roof.
By eliminating the maze of separate offices, government promised shorter processing times, lower transaction costs, and an end to the endless paper-chasing across town and saving taxpayers more than Shs4b annually in rent.
Three years after completion, the centre stands only partly operational; a symbol of unfulfilled potential.
While some agencies have moved in, the official commissioning has never happened, and the vision of a fully functional one-stop hub remains unrealised.
The building currently houses URSB, UIA, and CMA, among others. The ground floor was designed as a one-stop service hub with booths for URA, NSSF, URSB, UTB, UNBS, NIRA, NWSC, UEDCL, Federation of Uganda Employers, and Ministry of Lands, among others; all meant to provide investors with quick access to essential government services.
KCCA also maintains a presence, while Pearl Bank (formerly PostBank) is setting up to handle tax collection and provide other financial services.
Yet, many booths on the expansive floor remain empty, and the foot traffic into the centre falls far short of expectations.
John Kyewalabye, the head of CEDP under the Ministry of Finance, says the subdued activity is largely due to automation and digitalisation of services.
‘The aspiration now is to transition to an electronic service centre where people can access services digitally,’ he says.
But one wonders how government would inject huge sums of money into a project without correlating it with planned digital investment in services such as business registration, land verification, and environmental licensing.
But beyond this, Kyewalabye concedes that integrating all agencies into a truly unified system remains a major challenge.
‘It’s not just about putting agencies in one building. They must also be linked to provide seamless services across the board,’ he says.
To that end, NIRA, which provides national identification, is upgrading its ID systems, while NITA-U, also based in the UBFC, is working to integrate government databases and improve interoperability.
However, Kyewalabye is quick to note that CEDP’s role was limited.
‘Our job was to deliver the infrastructure. Implementation is government’s responsibility,’ he says.
On paper, the UBFC was designed to host at least 15 government service desks, including immigration, tax, standards, and environmental licensing; all under one roof.
In practice, many agencies continue to operate as silos across Kampala, which undermines both the promise of saving on rent and the convenience that the facility promised.
Investors still make multiple trips across Kampala, battling ‘process fatigue’ in the very system the UBFC was meant to fix.
Worse still, a turf war has overshadowed the centre’s purpose.
Even before the facility opened, cracks began to show. What was meant to be a joint venture between URSB and UIA quickly turned into a power struggle over control and branding.
In August 2023, URSB Registrar General Mercy Kainobwisho accused UIA of ‘forcefully taking over’ the facility and rebranding it as its own, contrary to a 2014 MoU between the agencies.
UIA denied the accusation, noting that: ‘We are not hijacking anything. The one-stop centre is part of our institutional identity. We are here to make it work.’
As the agencies sparred over signage and space, operational rollout stalled.
Government later clarified that the UBFC belongs to the state and would ‘serve all agencies as intended’.
Amid this, UIA has shifted its focus toward its digital one-stop platform (eBiz) and plans to open regional one-stop hubs in Gulu, Mbarara, Mbale, and Arua.
Attempts to reach UIA Director General Robert Mukiza for comment were unsuccessful by press time.
For many observers, the story of the UBFC epitomizes Uganda’s broader development paradox: ambitious projects undermined by coordination failures and bureaucratic turf wars.