KAYORO, TORORO | In the red-soiled plains of Osukuru County, beneath a sky heavy with the promise of rain, two presidents stood side by side to break ground on what may become one of East Africa’s most consequential industrial projects. When Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and Kenya’s William Samoei Ruto launched the USD 500 million Devki Mega Steel Plant, they signaled the beginning of a new industrial chapter for a region long defined by exporting raw materials and importing its own prosperity.
The ceremony, led by Kenyan industrialist Dr. Narendra Raval, marks a symbolic turning point for Uganda. The facility, projected to employ 15,000 Ugandans at its initial operational stage, sits at the heart of Museveni’s long-running ambition to rebuild Uganda’s economic structure on the foundation of value addition, regional competitiveness and industrial self-sufficiency. For the President, the event was not merely industrial but historical. He framed it as part of reversing centuries of economic injustice that stripped Africa of minerals, jobs and value. “For over 500 years, Africa has exported its minerals and its jobs. Today we begin to reverse that,” Museveni said.
The project is the latest expression of Uganda’s accelerating development agenda, shaped by the 10-Fold Growth Strategy, the upcoming National Development Plan IV, the import-substitution and export-promotion drive, and the government’s broader campaign to end reliance on raw-material exports. As global steel demand rises from 39.5 million tonnes in Africa today to a projected 52 million tonnes by 2034. The continent faces a critical choice between remaining a consumer market or becoming a manufacturing hub. Devki’s investment positions Uganda firmly in the latter.
Uganda’s iron ore deposits in Kabale, Kisoro and Tororo have long been recognized for their potential, but until now, they remained largely underutilized. Dr. Raval intends to integrate the Tororo plant with an upcoming iron ore refinery in Kabale, which will create an additional 16,000 jobs and complete the value chain from ore to finished steel. “Importing steel is importing poverty,” he said. “We must produce here, create jobs here, and empower our youth.”
The 10-Fold Growth Strategy, introduced in 2024, seeks rapid expansion in manufacturing, value addition, energy generation, regional integration and labour productivity. The Devki project touches nearly all these priorities: it relies on locally sourced minerals, strengthens domestic manufacturing, positions Uganda as a supplier of regional steel demand, and forms part of the wider East African value chain.
Uganda’s forthcoming National Development Plan IV places industrialization and technology adoption at its core. The Tororo plant reflects this shift, strategically located near the border with Kenya and aligned with regional logistics corridors. President Ruto noted that Kenya will launch the next phase of the Standard Gauge Railway in January, extending from Naivasha to Malaba and eventually to Tororo. This would place Devki at the centre of East Africa’s emerging industrial rail network, linking Mombasa Port directly to the region’s manufacturing heartland.
Uganda currently loses an estimated USD 5 billion annually through imports that could be substituted with domestic production. Steel is one of the highest-value categories. Museveni has repeatedly described this import dependence as economically irrational, arguing that Devki’s entry reflects the structural shift Uganda needs to protect its foreign exchange and create employment.
The groundbreaking also reflected an uncommon spirit of regional economic cooperation. Ruto emphasized that Kenya encouraged Devki to invest in Uganda precisely because Uganda is the natural source of raw materials for steelmaking. The logic, he said, is not one of competition but integration—where each country strengthens a part of the regional value chain. “We convene here not just to commission a factory, but to usher in a new, audacious chapter in Africa’s industrialization ambitions,” he said.
For Tororo, the project is expected to transform the district’s economic profile. Dr. Raval pledged that 90 percent of all jobs at the plant would go to local residents. Rebecca Kadaga, Uganda’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs, called the investment “a defining moment for regional industrial integration.” Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa described it as “historic,” noting that Uganda’s industrialization journey has long needed an anchor industry like steel to catalyze manufacturing.
The Devki Steel project joins a growing list of industrial megaprojects from sugar expansions in northern Uganda to new manufacturing zones in Namanve and Mbarara that mark Uganda’s shift toward a production-centered economy. Together, they signal the country’s transition into a new industrial epoch: capital-intensive, mineral-anchored, regionally integrated, and deeply connected to emerging global supply chains.
