In March 2020, the government signed a deal that promised to put Mbarara on the global aviation map.
Blueprints pointed to classrooms, hangars, and young Ugandans training as pilots and engineers at Nyakisharara aerodrome, about 10 kilometres from the city centre.
The pitch was powerful: build a local pipeline of aviation talent, cut foreign training costs, and turn a sleepy airstrip into a skills hub. Five years later, the airstrip was still sleepy.
The classrooms were never filled. The only paperwork moving is an assessment report that reads like an obituary for a project that never truly took off.
As the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) surpassed its intended deadline, the question that hung over Nyakisharara was not when training would start, but whether the deal itself could be salvaged.
Enters B7IAA Company
Base 7 International Aviation Academy (B7IAA) first appeared on the government’s radar in July 2019.
The company had been incorporated in Uganda and listed itself as an affiliate of 360 Aviation, a South African accredited aviation training institution.
From their script, they wanted to establish, incorporate, and develop an aviation 360 facility at Nyakisharara aerodrome in Mbarara District.
The facility would cover air operations, a flight training academy, a maintenance facility, and other disciplines in the aviation industry.
Experts say for a country that sends many of its aviation trainees abroad at high cost, the idea had appeal.
A local academy could reduce forex outflows, create jobs, and give the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority (UCAA) a partner in building technical capacity.
UCAA, the sector regulator, and the Ministry of Works and Transport, its political supervisor, approved the initiative to move forward.
On March 17, 2020, they signed a five-year MoU with B7IAA to provide a framework for cooperation and collaboration in the exploration of the possibility, viability, and feasibility of establishing an Aviation Academy in Nyakishara, Mbarara City.
The immediate past Works and Transport Minister, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, and the then UCAA Director General, Mr David Mpango Kakuba, put their signatures on behalf of the government.
On the other hand, Chief Executive Officer Tamryn Van Staden and Mr Ham Kamuntu, a director, signed for Base 7 International Aviation Academy Ltd.
Obligations
Under the MoU, the government undertook to provide land for the development of the aviation academy, approve the use of land for constructing project facilities, grant B7IAA right to use Nyakisharara aerodrome and, here applicable, lobby tax incentives for the firm.
On the other hand, B7IAA committed to establish an aviation and flight training academy, obtain regulatory approvals to execute the project, deliver reliable supply of knowledge to the government and Ugandans, and provide proof of partnership with South African affiliate, 360 Aviation Academy.
The company also pledged to provide financial and technical resources to kick the project to life, issue shares to the government as investment whenever required, and seek Works and Transport ministry approvals for project facilities.
On paper, it was a balanced framework. The government would unlock land and regulatory access. B7IAA would bring money, expertise, and a South African partner to build and run the aviation and flight training school.
Investigations
For three years, the project drew little public attention. That changed in July 2023 when Rose Partners submitted an expression of interest to develop Mbarara Aerodrome.
The proposal put the Ministry of Works and Transport, as well as UCAA in a bind. They could not entertain a new developer without first knowing whether B7IAA had met its commitments under the existing MoU.
After consultations with the Attorney General, the ministry decided to audit B7IAA’s performance. A technical team was assembled with officials from the Ministry of Works and Transport and UCAA, the sector supervisor and regulator, respectively.
The team included the ministry’s Nelson Rwenaga, Edmand Kalende and Robert Kisakye and Mr Sam Wonekha and Fred Tuliraba from the regulator’s side.
They travelled to Nyakishara in western Uganda on January 25, 2024, with a specific checklist: Ascertain whether an aviation and flight training academy had been established on the ground, whether B7IAA had the regulatory approvals to operate it, and whether the promised agreements with 360 Aviation existed.
The team interviewed a total of eight witnesses, split nearly evenly between B7IAA and UCAA staff, notable among them being the former’s lead instructor Viola Kalembe and aviation security staffers Benon Mutungi and Ronald Ayebazibwe.
Stinging findings
In their report, the government investigators noted that the aviation and flight training academy in Nyakisharara had not been realised.
‘The academy premises at Mbarara Aerodrome looked abandoned with no evidence of any activity taking place,’ they wrote.
B7IAA had not, according to the report, put in place any instructional equipment, aircraft, or any part of the aircraft usable for training purposes. There was no established library, physical or virtual, despite such a facility being a major requirement of an aviation academy.
The regulatory story was just as thin. UCAA had licensed B7IAA to offer the Flight Operations Officers’ course. B7IAA officials told the team that they had trained and graduated 10 students, a position that one of its directors, Mr David Magaga Kamanya, reiterated in an interview with out sister NTV-Uganda television station.
‘The school started,’ he said of the aviation and flight academy, ‘and we trained some students [who even] graduated. In that regard, there was success.’
This was the first time, and at the start of publication of our ongoing series, Chasing Big Dreams in the Air, that Mr Kamanya spoke to the Nation Media Group-Uganda more than a month after we reached out to him over the story.
The accounts by the sector regulator and supervisor, however, contradict the versions that any students trained at Nyakisharara, with the government team of investigators reporting that none was presented for UCAA examination and certification as required by the regulations.
The licence granted to B7IAA to operate an Approved Training Organisation was itself no longer valid by the time of the fact-finding mission, having expired on December 13, 2023.
B7IAA officials said CAA had given a grace period until February 15, 2024 to meet renewal conditions. When the team visited in late January, those conditions had not been met.
No financier
The MoU’s credibility rested partly on B7IAA’s link to 360 Aviation in South Africa. That link was supposed to bring curriculum, instructors, and credibility.
The team found that these agreements or partnerships had never been presented to either the Ministry of Works or the regulator.
B7IAA officials told the team the partnership with 360 Aviation failed to materialize, with director Kamanya blaming the situation of Covid-19 pandemic disruptions.
Instead, the company moved to introduce a new partner, Hunan Construction Engineering Group Co. from China.
The entry of the new company brought its own complications as it sought to develop Nyakisharara aerodrome into a mega international airport, contrary to original plans to establish and run an aviation and flight training academy.
The changes in partners and demands prompted the government’s technical team to red-flag the proposal, directing that B7IAA’s search for partners should be internal to them and limited to the establishment of an Aviation Academy.
Bureaucrats advised that any prospective investors in airport development should deal directly with the government and outside the MoU with Base 7 for the establishment of the Aviation Training Organisation.
‘The major challenge faced by B7IAA [was] the lack of funds to fully establish an Aviation Academy at Mbarara Aerodrome. From the discussions held, Base7IAA has on several occasions tried to get partnerships with other investors, but they have not been successful,’ the report read.
Official verdict
In response to inquiries by this newspaper about how they plan to build a mega airport at Nyakisharara when they were unable to establish a training academy there, Mr Ham Kamuntu, one of directors of B7IAA who signed the March 2020 MoU with the government, said: ‘This is not the right time to speak to the media. When the right time comes I will speak.’
The proposal to build Nyakisharara International Airport, with B7IAA among the potential developers, has gained the attention of President Museveni, who in February directed Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja to rally government actors on the cause.
State House would not say whether the President was aware that one of the would-be investors in the construction of the planned airport had failed to establish a training academy at Nyakisharara under a five-year MoU.
Senior Presidential spokesperson Sandor Walusimbi said he was not fully seized of the facts, and would not comment. In the interview with NTV-Uganda, B7IAA’s other director Kamanya consigned the issue of the aviation and flight training academy to the past, saying their focus now is on building a world-class international airport to serve as midpoint transit, refueling and logistical hub between Latin America and Asia, particularly Brazil and China.
‘Yes, we are adding things together, we are in collaboration with our partners and the government. So, we shall soon make, I think, a mark, very soon. But of course, we start with [in] stages; [first a] comprehensive feasibility study, and then we do ground opening,’ he said.
In the case of the MoU, the failed implementation exposes three policy gaps. First is due diligence. The MoU was signed with a company that, four years later, could not produce its foundational technical partner and lacked capital to start.
The same company with new partners is back with another promise of a state of the art International Airport, this time they met President Museveni, who directed that the project be expedited. While they are working with global-level partners, their track record under the 2020 MoU raises questions.
An official who served on the 2020 MoU evaluation team, but preferred anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter, said ‘the concept is no longer developing an aviation school, but an even bigger concept of an international airport.’
‘The Ministry [of Works and Transport’s] role will be regulatory rather than participatory at this stage. They (B7IAA) are supposed to procure land themselves and as the ministry we shall come in on regulatory issues,’ the official said.
The government, according to top technocrats, is yet to make an ‘assessment and evaluation’ of the proposed airport construction project, pending a return and specific offerings by B7IAA and their partners