National Medical Stores hosted the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) team at the Kajjansi site for the new warehouse and office complex on Monday. The Global Fund is a major partner and donor to the project, and the CCM team was led by Dr. Maggie Kigozi, the Vice Chairperson.
The Global Fund provided an initial $ 7 million, and the CCM team were on hand to check the progress, and crucially also explore the opportunity to provide additional funding.
On hand to host the CCM team was Paul Okware, the NMS Chief Stores and Operations Officer. In his presentation, he gave an overview of the construction to date, and revealed various facts about the upcoming structure. The 69.5 billion shilling complex shall house one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical warehouses and cold-storage facilities. It shall have a pallet capacity of over 30000, a quality control lab, offices for more than 200 staff and basement parking for 90 cars. Also, a lot of its workings will be automated, and it shall largely be a ‘green’ building, for it is designed to let in as much natural light as possible. Indeed connected to that will be a solar capacity with an electricity load of 300 KVA, promising tremendous savings in energy.
“So far the progress of the project stands at about 50%, inclusive of design, and we are confident with the quality of work that’s being done by the constructor,” Okware disclosed. He also added that in spite of a few challenges, completion remained on track for 2019.
On the issue of finance, and central to the CCM visit, was Okware revealing that about 40 billion shillings is still needed for completion. The Government of Uganda (NMS inclusive) is to provide 19.9 billion.
The CCM team then toured the extensive site, after which Dr. Kigozi gave the assurance that the Global Fund would avail the additional resources necessary, approximately 21.56 billion shillings. “I must say that we are happy with the progress of this project and we will ensure that it is successfully completed,” she guaranteed.
