The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Hon. Maria Kiwanuka shall be the Guests of Honour of the 1st Ugandan Convention in UK scheduled to take place on 27th August at Troxy, 490 Commercial Road, London E1 0HX.

Hon. Maria Kiwanuka, the new Finance Minister is an Economist and businesswoman. She has been the Managing Director of Radio One and Radio Two (Akaboozi). She also served as a non-Executive Director on the Board of Directors of Aghakan Foundation (East Africa), The Nabagereka Development Trust, Nkumba University, Uganda Development Bank and Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited.

She graduated with a Bachelors degree in Commerce (BCom) from Makerere University in 1977 and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from London Business School. Beginning around 1980, she worked for more than ten years with the World Bank, as an Economist and Financial Analyst for the East Asian and Southern African regions. She later left the World Bank and went into private business.

Hon. Maria Kiwanuka is married to Mr. Mohan Kiwanuka, the Managing Director of Oscar Industries Limited.

It will be an honour to attend the 1st Ugandan Convention in UK and it is such a noble initiative that we all need to support in order to harness the tremendous skill, exposure, expertise and knowledgebase of the Ugandan Diaspora with a view to promote socio-economic and infrastructural development back in Uganda, thus promoting, contributing, enhancing and sustaining economic growth in Uganda.

The UK Convention
The vision of this convention is to harness the tremendous skill, exposure, expertise and knowledgebase of the Ugandan Diaspora with a view to promote socio-economic and infrastructural development in Uganda, thus promoting, contributing, enhancing and sustaining economic growth.

The Diaspora is a diverse people representing several ethnic groups in Uganda and still has strong links and family ties to their motherland. It is estimated that over 660,000 Ugandans live in the Diaspora. They provide a good opportunity to increase Uganda’s networking with the international community to promote trade and investment through contacts that they make in countries they have settled in.

The Diaspora communities are important Cultural Ambassadors of Uganda. The rich cultures of the different ethnic groups practiced by Ugandans in Diaspora attract the attention of foreign publics to Uganda and instill a desire to learn more and discover about Uganda.

Today the Diaspora community is held in high regard due to their contributions to poverty reduction in their families and the national economy through remittances and other investments.

UCU’s mission is to:

• Inspire and encourage networking and unity among Ugandans in Europe for social, educational, cultural, economic and benevolent activities, and sustained image building for their nation.
• Link the Ugandan Diasporas with European and Ugandan private and public organisations
• Promote an entrepreneurial culture through exchange of information, discussion and research; and encourage business relationships and interaction.
• Utilise the intellectual and financial capital of the Diaspora by identifying and engaging in significant, long-term and sustainable project initiatives, for the purpose of improving the livelihood of all Ugandans, in the Diaspora and in Uganda.
• Seek and develop opportunities for investment and philanthropy in Uganda, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe
• Lobby and influence Uganda government to harness the "vast expertise" of Ugandan professionals in Europe thereby providing extra skilled capacity needed by Uganda to hasten its socio-economic development.