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The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) has received eight pre-qualification applications for the Kampala-Jinja Expressway PPP project. This involves the construction of a 77km expressway linking the capital of Uganda to Jinja, in the south-east. The total estimated investment required is over US$1 billion.

The eight bidders are:

• China Communications Construction Company
• China Railway Construction Investment Group Co. in consortium with Cube Construction Engineering Ltd (India)
• Shapoorji Pacconji (India)
• Strabag SE (Austria)
• Tecnasol Luisa Goncal (Portugal) 
• Vinci SA (France)
• A consortium known as Enkula Expressway comprised of South African entities
• A consortium described as CCKS​

The UNRA expects the assessment and approval process to take approximately two months. At the time of the publication of the Request for Qualifications (RFQ), UNRA intended to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to qualified respondents in October 2018.

The selected private partner will undertake the design, construction, financing, operation and maintenance of the limited access tolled expressway, which is to have eight lanes from Nakawa, an area of Kampala in the east of the city, to Kyambogo, six lanes from there to Mukono (around 15km) and four lanes for the remaining 60km to Jinja.

Of the US$1 billion investment, the company or consortia is expected to provide US$600 million (envisaged 20% equity, 80% debt). The remainder of the financing will be provided by the Ugandan government with support from development partners that include African Development Bank, the African Union, and the French Development Agency.

The participation of local contractors is key to the execution of the project. Shortlisted teams will have to provide fully worked contracts with local firms who will undertake 30% of construction work should they be selected.

The schedule outlined when the RFQ was published envisaged the submission of final bids in May 2019, with the aim of achieving commercial close with the successful bidder in November 2019. The UNRA appears to be on track to achieving this.