Kinyara Sugar Works, whose complete name is Kinyara Sugar Works Limited, is a sugar manufacturer in Uganda.
Location
The main factories of the company are located in the town of Kinyara in Masindi District in the Western Region. Kinyara is approximately, by road, west of Masindi, the nearest large town and the location of the district headquarters. This location is approximately, by road, north-west of Kampala, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The coordinates of the company factory are 1°38'14.0"N, 31°36'30.0"E.
Overview
KSWL is the second-largest manufacturer of sugar in Uganda, producing an estimated 110,000 metric tonnes annually, accounting for approximately 31 percent of national output. According to a 2011 published report, the estimated 350,000 metric tonnes of sugar produced by the four leading sugar manufacturers in Uganda are marketed to the eastern African countries of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda.
History
In 1955, the Omukama of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom Tito Owinyi was given land by the Bunyoro Native Government. He opened a Jaggery factory in Kinyara, where the current factory is located. Owinyi began production of jaggery in 1959, selling it to the Lango, Acholi and West Nile districts. The whole of northern Uganda relied on this product from Kinyara for their alcohol brewing and the sweetening of other products. In the late 1960s, the government of Uganda asked the Omukama of Bunyoro to partner with him and the Kingdom of Bunyoro. He convinced the Orukurato of Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom to allow the government to expand the factory and the plantation. The central government and Bunyoro Kingdom agreed and a memorandum of understanding was signed between the central government and Bunyoro Kitara Kingdom, requiring the central government to pay 30 percent to Bunyoro Kingdom and the Omukama of Bunyoro. This relationship continued until 1966 when the kingdom was abolished, but the factory continued to run. During the political and economic turmoil in Uganda in the 1970s and 1980s, Kinyara was adversely affected and production of sugar ceased. In the 1990s, KSWL was rehabilitated by Booker Tate Limited with aid and loan agreements for various funders underwritten by the Ugandan government. Sugar production resumed in 1995. Following the resumption and stabilisation of sugar production, the government sold 51 percent shareholding in Kinyara Sugar Works Limited to the Rai Group, a Mauritius-based investment group. In September 2011, the Uganda government sold a further 19 percent shareholding in KSWL to the Rai Group for US$9.1 million in cash. The sales agreement called for the Rai Group to float this shareholding in an IPO on the Uganda Securities Exchange after five years. Previous agreements called for the sale of the remaining 30 percent shareholding to the following entities: 10 percent to the Omukama of Bunyoro, 10 percent to the KSWL outgrowers, and 10 percent to KSWL employees. That process was ongoing as of September 2011.
Ownership
As of September 2011, the shareholding in KSWL was as follows:
In September 2011, the Rai Group, who owned 70 percent of the company shares, signed commitments to invest US$55 million in the factory within three years, increase production to at least 200,000 metric tonnes annually within the same time period, and use the baggase to generate 35 megawatts of electricity, of which 22 megawatts were be sold to the national grid.
Subsidiaries
KSWL is the sole owner of the Kinyara Power Station, a 14.5 megawatt bagasse-fired thermal electrical plant that, as of July 2013, was in the process of expanding power production capacity to 40 megawatts by 2015.
