Coffee farmers and investors in Uganda have accused the CEO Inspire Africa Coffee, Nelson Tugume for pocketing US$20m (Ugx76,152,840,000) meant to finance coffee export trade.
The aggrieved people allege that on a political order, the money ended up in his private account, and he has since “disappeared”.
MEGA SCANDAL: The Prime Minister’s office gave Tugume billions of shillings to help young people learn about coffee and run coffee shops, with the goal including how to teach them about managing money and other financial skills.
However, the money appears to have been misappropriated, with the 2021 Auditor General’s report revealing that following a visit to Arua where the construction of coffee shops was planned, the site had been abandoned with no ongoing activity. In Mbale, the coffee shop had shut down, and its equipment was stored at the Mbale District Offices. In Lira, coffee shops were notably absent, and in Gulu, anticipated facilities such as a Washing Bay and others were never put in place.
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NELSON TUGUME & $20 MILLION SCANDAL: According to Robert Kabushega, a coffee farmer and investor who is the CEO Rugyeyo Farm, now exposing this scandal in his twitter/X posts, the whole program was a scam and the money has been swindled.
“COFFEE SCAM DISCLOSURE! So it turns out that a political order was given & US$20m was disbursed to @TugumeNelsonO. This money is meant to finance coffee export trade. But as some of us kept pointing out, this money has since ended up in Nelson’s private account. He has lived up to his reputation as an accomplished crook & is no longer accessible. He has vanished with the money. This whole coffee value addition story is simply a scam. Clearly nothing good will ever come to us coffee people from Government. Time to organize ourselves privately & find solutions for our business. There is no hope!,” Kabushenga posted on January 12, 2024.
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Robert goes further to claim that in Nelson’s latest scheme is a media campaign in Russian media allied to Putin. Supposedly to grow imports of Ugandan coffee into Russia. That will need more money. He accuses Nelson of spending part of the taxpayers money to build his “factory for instant coffee” in Ntungamo western Uganda.
“If you want to know how this will end, read what he did with the UGX 9.6bn he was given by Office of the Prime Minister in the Auditor General’s report. It is a public document.”
He goes ahead, “there is also the small matter of hundreds of thousands of dollars he obtained from Mastercard foundation through Private Sector Foundation Uganda that he has obdurately refused to pay back or even account for yet this is the person that was presented to Uganda’s Cabinet and to a meeting in South Africa of so called leading local exporters as the main local coffee exporter. It was here that the $20m request was tabled & passed as small money.”
“He tried to use existing players in the sector for legitimacy. Those who were gullible were played & they have admitted in a public fall out with him. Those who refused have become targets of regulatory pressure.”
Nelson has already written a cease and desist letter to Robert and threatened to sue him for USD280M should he persist with the claims that he stole $20M, but the obsessive farmer Kabushenga has continued with posts he has termed “coffee scam exposure”.
NELSON TUGUME’S PLIGHT ESCALATES: Meanwhile, President Museveni has now demanded a full accountability in Ugx37 billion meant for coffee value chain.
It’s said that in mid last year, President Museveni authorized the Finance Ministry to set aside $10 million (Ugx 37 billion) as a coffee export fund to allow exporters access to the required capital to procure large quantities of coffee from farmers for value addition.
The lobby was under Coffee Investment Consortium Initiative, whose Chairperson is Nelson Tugume, and members included; Kwezi Kutesa of Kwezi Coffee, Gerald Katabazi of Volcano Coffee, Jacklene Arinda of Jada coffee among others, though the consortium has since been affected by these scandals.
According to available information, these later abandoned the consortiums after failure to get helping funds mounting to USD550m each from the initiative.
His Excellency the President has since requested for an update on how far this has gone following the disbursement of the funds worth UGX37billion (Thirty Seven Billion Uganda Shillings) towards Coffee Value Chain.
In the same regard, he has asked Hon. Dr. Monica Musenero, the Minister for Science, Technology, and Innovation Secretariat to compile an audit financial report on the Ugx37 billion that was meant for the coffee value chain.
In a letter written by Dr. Musenero, dated 15th of January 2024 to the chair of CICU, the Minister quoted that ; the President has requested the update performance of 37B following the disbursement of the funds worth UGX. 37 billion (Thirty Seven Billion Uganda Shillings) towards Coffee Value Chain.
INSPIRE AFRICA COFFEE FACTORY/HUB IN NTUNGAMO: It is also worth noting, that the same businessman Tugume, on December 29, 2022, opened Inspire Africa Coffee Factory/Hub in Rwashamire Ntungamo, and the chief guest was the President and the first lady Janet Kataha Museveni.
During the commission, Tugume commended the President for promoting value addition in coffee sector in order for Uganda to get what it deserves as one of the top coffee producing countries in the world.
He informed the president that the global coffee industry is worth more than US$400 billion.
Tugume further informed the President that a total of 50 cooperatives had come together under Ankole-Rwenzori-Kigezi Coffee Investment Consortium Uganda (ARKCU) to promote value addition and determine their price on the global market, saying the people sitting behind the computers to determine the value of Ugandan coffee in UK and USA, none has ever owned one plant of coffee.
UGANDA EARNING A LOT FROM COFFEE: Uganda’s half-year earnings in coffee exports have exponentially increased from $255.35m (sh919b) earned in the first half of the 2020/2021 financial year to $419.4m (sh1509. 8b) earned in the first half of the financial year of 2021/2022.
About 1.7 million households in Uganda are engaged in coffee farming and close to five million people are employed in coffee related activities according to Uganda Coffee Development Authority (Robusta Coffee Handbook). Uganda is still struggling to realize value addition due to corruption, lack of resources and other challenges.
By press time, Nelson didn’t respond to our calls for a comment. RISE NEWS UGANDA will bring more updates as this scandal escalated.
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