Multimillionaire Habib Kagimu Backs Farms And Tourism, Not Oil, To Power Uganda's Economy

Ugandan businessman and Malaysias honorary consul in Kampala, Habib Kagimu, says the country is overweight oil and underinvested in its natural advantages: agriculture, tourism and applied technology. Agriculture is a wonderful sector you cant be beaten because we all need to eat, Kagimu told ChimpReports on the sidelines of the recent UgandaUAE Business Forum, urging policymakers to treat crude as bonus revenue while building around food and visitors. He pointed to agricultures outsized share of GDP and employment and argued that tourism, still a small slice of output, could scale dramatically with better air access, product quality and marketing. He contrasted Ugandas biodiversity with Dubais man-made appeal, adding that a country with mountain gorillas, big game and water bodies should not be trailing destinations built from glass and sand. Kagimus stance cuts against the dominant narrative as Uganda advances projects tied to billions of barrels of recoverable oil and forecasts multi-billion-dollar receipts over the coming decades. The risk, he said, is mistaking a volatile commodity cycle for an industrial policy. Ugandans should not be cheated by oil, he said. He isnt anti-hydrocarbon. His career includes downstream assets and energy trading, and he chairs Habib Investments Ltd, a Kampala holding company with interests spanning oil and gas, real estate and telecom-adjacent services. His network extends into the Gulf and Asia through his consular role and commercial partnerships. That vantage point informs a push for value addition at home: export processed foods instead of raw produce build conservation-grade lodges and experiences rather than chasing headcount wire farms and parks with tech that raises yields, trims losses and lifts service standards. He uses Malaysia as a reference point. Technology became a flywheel for a broader economy there, and he believes Uganda can take a similar route train engineers and technicians, apply science to agriculture and tourism, and use logistics to close the gap between farm, factory and airport. Oil, in this telling, pays for infrastructure and buffers budgets, but shouldnt set the countrys identity. Kagimu's message is : food and water are permanent markets wildlife and landscapes are scarce assets and software can make both scale. A policy mix that leans into those advantages, while enforcing mining and environmental standards, would give Uganda steadier cash flows than a single bet on crude