Former Bunyaruguru Member of Parliament Benjamin Cadet has tipped outgoing Members of Parliament to venture into Marijuana growing if they are looking at making good money as they go about life after leaving Parliament.
This he said during a counseling seminar on life after Parliament as Members of the 10th Parliament prepare to leave office as most of them were defeated in Parliamentary elections held in January.
“You are still MPs. I believe you have ministers among us you; talk to them. In Uganda and in the world, money is in Marijuana; I just do an export and I get US$300,000 US dollars tax free because exports don’t pay tax,” he told the legislators.
He was, however, quick to acknowledge that Marijuana growing in Uganda still faces the absence of legal instruments to regulate its growth.
The ministers who are here… those that we made ministers, you just know that by delaying to get out to the regulations, you are curtailing Ugandans to become millionaires or billionaires. Because me as a person, the contracts I have, I cannot sustain all but they keep on coming. We have so many products we can get from the marijuana plant apart from medicine,” he added.
Lyandro Komakech, in support, said: “From his Marijuana business, he earns $300,000 a year in export because the marijuana he exports is for medical is for medical use is not for general smoking around and making people drunk. No. So he encouraged members to join me him because he cannot now contain the market out there in exporting marijuana. And this marijuana is on an industrial scale…”
Redefining the CFO Role in Oil and Gas: How UNOC’s Emmanuel Mugagga Is Executing Strategy for National Impact
Guidelines
Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng, at the beginning of last year drafted 15 stringent guidelines that companies seeking to grow marijuana for medical purposes are supposed to follow.
Among the guidelines is that individuals and companies seeking to grow or export marijuana for medical purposes will be required to present minimum capital of US$5m (UGX18.3 billion) and a bank guarantee of UGX4 billion.
Government requires all investors to present tax clearance certificates from the Uganda Revenue Authority, valid trading license, evidence of value addition to cannabis and audited accounts, among others.
The guidelines also states that marijuana farms/sites must not be located near schools, hospitals and residential areas and in case of any associates/business partners and such details must be disclosed to government including site designs, a robust security system with access control systems and intrusion systems in place.
