Foreign direct investment and economic development in Uganda

Abstract

The attraction and flow of FDI has become a key component of development policies in many countries and governments offer various incentives in that respect. The study was done to set down on FDI and economic development. Ministry of Finance, Bank of Uganda and Uganda Investment Authority were surveyed. The objectives of the study were to delineate the level of Foreign Direct Investment flow into Uganda, mark out its contribution to Uganda’s economic development then demarcate the relationship between them. The research took a mixed design both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. Both primary and secondary data were used in the survey. Primary data was gathered with the help of a survey questionnaire filled by a sample of size of 70 respondents were chosen purposively Secondary data was collected from earlier studies, publications, news papers, working papers and journals. The results were analysed statistically using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) software after which presentations of the findings were made and conclusions were made. In conclusion, findings indicated that there is a correlation between FDI and technology transfer, environment and employment though the benefit is not merely implied. Therefore the host country needs to streamline its policies, improve on the labour skills and technology absorption capacity to be able to profit from FDIs since they have a tendency of taking advantage of host country weaknesses in their attempt to cut costs and maximize gains. Also the monitoring should be added to the effort of attracting FDIs in Uganda