UK builder Colas Ltd is inviting specialist construction firms to get involved in a $318m project to build a new international airport in Uganda, backed by the UK government.
Hoima International Airport will be Uganda’s second biggest after Entebbe and will serve the country’s burgeoning oil and gas industry. The project is being funded by a loan of the same amount from UK Export Finance, the lending arm of the UK’s Department for International Trade.
Colas, which is building the airport in a joint venture with Switzerland-headquartered SBI International Holdings, wanted interested specialists to attend the Uganda-UK Trade and Investment Convention at Troxy in London on 15 September.
“With huge untapped natural resources, rapid urbanisation and attractive demographics in Uganda, the requirement for investment in infrastructure to support continued regional development is clear, and this aligns well with the outward-looking international element of the Colas UK strategy which seeks to expand our activities in East Africa,” said Colas Ltd’s new chief executive, Carl Fergusson.
Taking up his post last week, Fergusson said his mission to “wake the sleeping giant” by harnessing the 95-year-old firm’s potential and transforming it into a British household name.A subsidiary of France’s Colas SA, the company would, Fergusson said, grow organically and by acquisition as it competes for large projects at home and abroad.
