Africa-Press – Uganda. The management of Alfil Millers, one of the leading manufacturers of fortified wheat flour in the country, says they will be compelled to shutdown operations in the country if government does not quickly come to their rescue with a direct stimulus package to a tune of Shs10 billion.
Should this happen, some 250 employees will immediately be rendered jobless.In an August 4 letter to the Minister of State for Economic Monitoring, Mr Peter Ogwang, the proprietor of Alfil Millers, Mr Abdulrahman Ahmed, reveals that unless the government quickly rescues them from the fangs of Covid-19 and its resultant containment measures, they will be forced to close the factory.
In the letter, Mr Ahmed further discloses that in the last 20 or so months, the factory’s operation has been brought to its knees by the restrictive Covid-19 measures, including the lockdown, leaving them with no choice but to contemplate closing shop if no direct help from the government comes their way soon enough.
The factory general manager, Mr Maroine Nassufoudine, says the cost of raw materials, most of which is imported from Europe and parts of South America, has gone up. This is further being complicated by the irregular supply chain, which has been disrupted by the pandemic. This has been worsened by both low domestic consumption and reduced export orders, plunging production capacity of the $8m (about Shs28.2b) investment from 300 tonnes of fortified wheat per day to about 100 tonnes daily.As a result, about 150 of the 250 employees have been temporarily laid off.
“We are a local company. We employ more than 200 workers, whose lives depend on the successful operations of our company. We pay up to about Shs3 billion every year in taxes,” the letter reads in part.The letter further says: “Our appeal to the government, through you, minister, is for our company to get some stimulus package to enable us regain a good financial stability, so that we can do business that benefits our ordinary jobless Ugandans, especially the young people and pay taxes to spur the economy.
Tax holiday
With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to take its toll on the business, Mr Nassufoudine told Mr Ogwang that by providing them with tax holidays of between five and 10 years, it will offer them what some kind of relief in terms of company cash flows as they reorganise to repay their different obligations.”
After touring the factory last week, Mr Ogwang, who describes himself as the link man between the President’s office and the private sector, pledged to look into all the aforementioned concerns, including bringing them to the attention of the President and other concerned ministries and agencies of government.
