Bingi said this recently after meeting officials of Ubantu Civil Engineering Services in Kampala.
“I come to make peace with Ugandan business community, especially Ubantu whose services we are proud to have received and I invite them back to work to improve our city,” he said.
Bingi came to offer an olive branch to Ubantu services, who unceremoniously left Bunia in 2018 due to the latter’s non- fulfilment of the contractual payment obligations. He also invited Ubantu back to work with them on future business opportunities to spur growth in their city.
Michael Senoga, CEO of Ubantu, welcomed Bingi’s gesture and promised to mobilise other contractors to consider works in DR Congo.
BACKGORUND
In December, 2016, Bunia city administration contracted Ubantu to construct a 65km road from Iga Barrier to Mungwalo mines in Ituri province, for $1.5 million. Ubantu received a first instalment of $300,000.
But upon completion of the work in 2018, the Bunia city administration defaulted on payment of the balance. Efforts to arbitrate were thwarted when a war between armed militias broke out in Bunia, thereby pushing Ubantu to demobilize and return to Uganda without getting payment.
Senoga said he had written off the $1.2m as a bad debt until the governments of Uganda and DRC announced that they were undertaking a joint venture to establish roads into Eastern Congo to foster business.
That is when he followed up the matter with the new Bunia city administration led by Bingi and in an effort to mend fences, Bingi has promised to fast-track the payment.
Going forward, Senoga appealed to the Uganda government to create a position of business attaché to DR Congo to improve business relations.
“When the [Bunia] city administration defaulted to pay, I approached the Ugandan embassy in DR Congo but I was informed that they did not handle business matters. Our country does not have a clear policy on how to handle international trade between individuals even around the East African Community.
We suggest that they put a trade attaché in every embassy to see that our business dealings are always handled through the embassy so that in cases of bad business, the ministry of Foreign Affairs can come in at the diplomatic level and address these pitfalls,” he said.
“Many peers in the construction sector have been using our bad experience in Bunia as a turn-off but as DR Congo enters the East African Community soon, we hope other Ugandan entrepreneurs will venture in the country hopeful that
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