KAMPALA, Uganda (XOL Africa) — The opening of a new Marriott hotel and serviced-apartment complex in Kampala has highlighted growing investor interest in Uganda’s tourism sector, while President Yoweri Museveni used the occasion to press businesses to move beyond importing finished goods and towards domestic production.
The dual-branded Kampala Marriott Hotel and Marriott Executive Apartments Kampala, developed by Capital Shoppers, marks the first entry of the two Marriott brands into Uganda and takes Marriott International’s presence in the country to seven properties across five brands.
The development comprises 181 hotel rooms and suites and 96 fully serviced apartments, alongside six restaurants and bars, wellness and business facilities and 1,293 square metres of conference and events space. Its Kampala Grand Ballroom can accommodate as many as 985 guests.
More than 350 direct jobs have already been created, according to the company, with about 95 per cent of employees Ugandan nationals. More than 120 women work across the two properties, while roughly 90 per cent of procurement is sourced locally.
The project has also attracted investment from Uganda’s National Social Security Fund, which owns a 30 per cent stake, according to Capital Shoppers chairman Ponsiano Ngabirano.
Museveni welcomed the NSSF investment, arguing that deploying domestic savings into productive assets would generate greater economic benefits than investing workers’ money in foreign securities.
“I am also glad to hear that NSSF has woken up and invested in this hotel, instead of investing that money in foreign bonds which do not add anything to our GDP,”
he said at the inauguration in Kampala.
The president used Ngabirano’s business history — from a small grocery shop in Kampala’s Nakasero district to a major retail business and now a Marriott-branded hospitality development — to make a broader argument about Uganda’s economic strategy.
He said sustainable development should not be measured solely through infrastructure such as roads, but through the creation of wealth and productive capacity.
“Many of the African economies have not grown because of the mistakes of the leaders. They fail to distinguish between development and wealth,”
Museveni said.
He identified commercial agriculture, services, information and communications technology and manufacturing as four sectors that should drive wealth creation.
The president particularly praised Ngabirano’s transition from importing milk, when domestic supply was limited, to distributing locally produced milk. He said Uganda should encourage businesses to follow a similar path, using imports as a starting point but ultimately developing domestic manufacturing capacity.
“I want to congratulate Mr. Ngabirano, from being an importer to now an internal distributor,”
Museveni said.
He cited Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote as another example, saying Dangote had moved from importing cement to manufacturing it before expanding into petroleum.
“Importers, provided you are clear with our strategy, you will progress well,”
Museveni said.
The remarks underline a longstanding policy challenge for Uganda: attracting private capital while increasing domestic production, employment and tax revenues rather than relying heavily on imported goods.
Tourism becomes a larger economic bet
The Marriott opening comes as Uganda seeks to expand tourism and its contribution to the wider economy.
The Uganda Tourism Statistical Abstract 2025 estimates that tourism generated Shs5.8tn ($1.62bn) in earnings during 2025, equivalent to about 5.9 per cent of GDP, while supporting more than 876,000 jobs.
The new Marriott development is aimed not only at leisure visitors but also at business travellers, conferences and international meetings. Marriott’s regional vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, Johan Cronjé, said demand and investment in Uganda’s tourism sector were continuing to strengthen.
“Uganda’s tourism sector continues to demonstrate strong momentum, supported by growing visitor demand, investment and infrastructure development,”
Cronjé said.
He said the project would expand internationally branded accommodation, create employment and strengthen Kampala’s capacity to host major business and diplomatic events.
The company is also working with Ugandan universities, hospitality colleges and technical institutions to provide internships and training for prospective hotel workers.
That focus on skills is particularly relevant as Uganda seeks to capture more value from tourism. Finance minister Henry Musasizi said the country needed more specialised facilities to train hospitality workers and encouraged private investors to enter the training market.
Tax incentives and industry concerns
Musasizi described the Marriott development as a vote of confidence in Uganda’s investment environment. He said qualifying new investments can receive a 10-year tax holiday, with corporate income tax becoming applicable once an investor begins making profits.
But Ngabirano, who also raised concerns on behalf of the Uganda Hotels Association, said taxation remained a significant challenge for the hospitality industry.
He called on the government to review taxes affecting hotels to improve their competitiveness and urged greater investment in hospitality training.
He also appealed for additional land for hotel developments, including along the Kampala-Entebbe corridor, where improved transport links and proximity to the capital and airport could support further investment.
Ngabirano said the Marriott complex currently employs about 400 people and could exceed 1,000 employees by the end of the year. He put the proportion of Ugandan employees at about 97 per cent, broadly consistent with the company’s separate estimate that approximately 95 per cent of employees are Ugandan.
He credited the government’s stability and investment policies for enabling Capital Shoppers to expand from a small grocery operation into a major hospitality investor.
“What started as a small grocery in Nakasero turned into a supermarket and now we are opening a big franchise. It was because of your clean leadership, Your Excellency,”
Ngabirano told Museveni.
He also thanked the president and finance ministry for their support during construction and NSSF for its investment.
For Marriott, the project represents another step in the expansion of international hotel brands across Africa as investors seek to benefit from the continent’s population growth, rising intra-African travel and increasing demand for business accommodation.
For Uganda, however, the larger economic test is whether new hotels can generate sustained domestic linkages — from local procurement and employment to skills development and tax revenues.
Museveni’s message at the opening was therefore as much about Uganda’s industrial ambitions as its tourism prospects: foreign brands and capital are welcome, but their greatest value, in the government’s view, comes when they help build domestic productive capacity and create opportunities for Ugandan businesses and workers.
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