Uganda and the UAE clinch agreement to construct third international airport

President Yoweri Museveni’s office announced on Friday that Uganda and a business organization from the United Arab Emirates had inked a deal to construct a new international airport.

The UAE’s economic influence extends beyond its involvement in the oil and gas and renewable energy sectors with this agreement for the country’s third such airport in East Africa.

The airport will be built by the UAE’s Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the northeast, close to Uganda’s border with Kenya, just outside the Kidepo National Park, according to a statement from Museveni’s office. The cost was not disclosed.

According to Abdallah Sultan Al Owais, chairman of the Sharjah business council, construction will begin in August.

By luring tourists to the 1,442-square-kilometer (557-square-mile) Kidepo park, home to lions, giraffes, buffaloes, and other large game, the airport will increase tourism.

Witnessing the signing, Museveni wrote in a post on X that the deal was “a sign of the deepening relations with our Gulf partners and another opportunity to co-operate in investment and trade”.