Makerere University is planning to construct two five star hotels, one at the Makerere campus where the Guest House is currently located, and the other in the leafy suburb of Kololo.
Speaking exclusively to the EagleOnline, the University Vice Chancellor Prof Sentamu Ddumba said the developments will be part of a varsity long-term programme that also includes building apartments in Makindye, Kabanyolo and Katalemwa.
“Now, regarding your question, do we have other sources of revenue? Yes, but what we did when I came into office is to set long term plans; I can’t talk about quick money; we are not in business; we are not supposed to do that and that’s not our core business but we have land and much of our core effort now is focusing on land, real estate and construction of apartments in Makindye,” Prof Ddumba said adding that the university will also intends to use its land in Soroti and Kibaale for commercial tree-planting activities.
“As of now we don’t have money and we are going to use our forestry people here to start planting trees,” he said, adding that all the university investments are going to be held in trust by a yet-to-be-started company, the Makerere Holding Company under the chairmanship of Mr Charles Mbiire.
However, Prof Ddumba acknowledged that the university faced constraints, both logistical and monetary, in executing all its plans.
It is a long process, we don’t have the money we have to look for the partners and how do you start constructing apartments without a law? The law of public private partnership (PPP) has just come and we must work within the law. That said, we have too many plans but then we are constrained because the ownership is not private, its government and this is a public institution so whatever we suggest here, even borrowing money; it’s not easy to borrow money from the banks, we would be doing that, but the Ministry of Education must agree to that first,” Prof Ddumba said.
