Interview with Isaac Serukenya, CEO of Newplan

What is your assessment of the engineering services sector in Uganda? What are the latest trends and challenges?

The sector here in Uganda is quite diverse. There is no limit to the potential and prospects here in the country in roads, environment, energy, oil and gas, minerals. Uganda is a hub for many of the things that are capable of being achieved here in Africa. The major element to look at is how to actually harness all these things and bring them into the business environment so that everyone can benefit, not just in Uganda but also internationally. We are very keen on investment. Our President is always looking for opportunities to get people to come into the country and invest in Uganda. The international community should listen to him because there is so much opportunity here. Especially on the international front, the government has opened up the business environment to various companies and international partners. In some instances, they have actually given quite a number of concessions just to create an opportunity for more investors to come in and for Ugandans to benefit.

How competitive is the consultancy sector?

In three years’ time, we want to triple our turnover and have bases in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and everywhere else. For now, we want to start with East Africa and then spread out as we have already done. Our strategy seems to be working so far.

The consultancy sector in Uganda is still virgin. Newplan has been here for 25 years, but there is still a lot of room for other players to enter. 25 years is a very short time for the consultancy field. There are other international consultancy firms that have been around for almost 100 years. There are not very many players in the consultancy field here in Uganda and among those that are, there are still capacity issues that we need to deal with in the country. Newplan is a firm of consulting engineers and planners. We cover a diverse area of infrastructure including oil and gas, energy, architecture and building services, highways and transport, engineering surveys, evaluation, legal services, logistics for various infrastructure development programs, and project management. Also critical to our field is the area of health and safety. That has come up as a major demand from our partners and our clients especially in the oil and gas sector. Newplan as a company has a competitive edge over the other firms because of our local knowledge. We have been here for 25 years. Many of us currently at Newplan used to work within the government infrastructure system. I am personally an electrical engineer and I worked with the Uganda Electricity Board before they unbundled and became the various companies they are now. After that, I was retained by UETCL for a few years handling their transmission system and construction engineer substations. We have a lot of history and knowledge of the local context both in the Ministries within the government and with the various partners that the government has already worked with which gives us a lot of leverage. We are very keen on ethics and integrity. We have an anti-corruption policy here within the company and have been following it since the company started. We have been audited several times by various international agencies and have come out very clean. It has worked out in our favor and given us a major competitive edge in our environment, not only in Uganda but in the region as well. We have grown to be a highly respected consultancy firm. Because of that, we are now diversifying to provide services in various areas. We are not just Newplan Ltd. as consultants but now we have ventured into other fields. We have opened Newplan Rwanda that has been operating for two to three years. We have Newplan Kenya which has been operating for about a year and a half. We also opened Newplan Engineering two years ago which focuses on the EPC side of the business: engineering, procurement, and construction. We also have Newplan Geolabs focusing on materials testing. We are diversifying, expanding, and building on the wealth of experience and knowledge that we have gained so far. This building is Newplan Ltd., but it is actually part of an umbrella group called Newplan Group. We interplay amongst ourselves and support each other. For example, wherever there is infrastructure development, buildings, materials, etc., before you go into the construction work, you need a reliable materials lab where you can test your materials and make sure that everything that goes onto site is as required. Newplan Geolabs works as a support function for all the other firms. We are now going into the actual construction works. There is a difference between consulting and contracting. With contracting, you are actually buying the materials, going onto the site, doing the excavation works, putting up the building itself. With consultancy, you do not do that. You only go as far as designing, maybe assisting with the bidding process and evaluations, and then the construction supervision. Newplan Engineering will focus on the actual construction works that put up the infrastructure. Once we have the lab and Newplan Engineering, they can take up the baton from the consulting side and do the actual implementation of these works in the various countries like Rwanda, Kenya. We are going into DRC and looking at prospects in South Sudan. Then, the same values that we have been able to achieve here in Uganda with a great level of success, the professionalism we have here, the reliability in our services that we have here, the efficiency that we have been able to achieve here that has built us the name and the brand that we have as Newplan, we will replicate in all the other countries in Africa and then hopefully take it globally.

Do you face competition from international companies?

We do. Normally, the really big contracts here in Uganda are opened up for international bidding. When they open it up, the first thing we do is look at the bid document and see what we can handle in house as Newplan. We are cognizant that we may not be able to cover all the bases. Then, we look at establishing partnerships or if we find that we can do it in house, we definitely go in and compete with the bigger consultancy firms on the global front.

What are some success stories that you are proud of?

I have been working at Newplan since 2005. I came in from the utility and I was doing work with the substations. My first project here was to design and supervise the construction of a one mega-watt solar-diesel hybrid power plant together with associated grid, both the low voltage network and the medium voltage network, on an island in Kalangala district called Bugala Island. When we have a shortage in experience, we are always open to work with partners elsewhere. Being the first solar-diesel plant of its kind, we partnered with Multiconsult in Norway. They designed the plant and then I worked with them to complete the substation part of the plant and the then the grid. Now, it is commissioned, it is working very well, and the people on the island are very happy with it. There is another project we are working on now that has been one of our biggest and most successful achievements in the company in the oil and gas sector. We are looking at building the longest heated oil pipeline in the world right here in the East African region. It is about 1,443 km. It comes from Hoima in the Lake Albert region all the way to the border with Tanzania and crossing through Tanzania to Tanga. The Uganda portion is 300 km. Right now, our scope is to do the research, analysis, and planning, or the RAP implementation as well. I first thought that it was not going to be possible to find a Ugandan firm to be able to mobilize and do that kind of work and finish it in a tight timeline. However, we mobilized in three weeks. At peak, we were about 700 highly skilled surveyors, valuers, sociologists. It was a diverse, multi-faceted group of great people. We put that team together and surveyed the entire route within a period of four weeks. They dangled a carrot before us saying they dared us to finish in four weeks and give them a feel for what is in the entire corridor and they would pay us an additional fee. They thought we could not do it but we pulled it off. It has been about a year and we have submitted the Resettlement Planning Report and the Evaluation Report is now under review. At first, we thought that because of the land issues in Uganda it would be a bit challenging. We worked very well with the government and with Total who is also our client. That has been one of the biggest success stories that we have had in the company. We are now looking forward to the implementation and the construction as well. It has been a marathon, but it has been very worth it.

How many projects can you handle at once? How many projects have you completed to date?

Because we have been around for a very long time, we have had 300 to 400 projects. Right now, we have a staff of about 90 employees. On top of that, we have a vast network of consultants that are on call for us. We can go up to 300 to 400 people at the same time on a project. We can recruit and mobilize in a very short time. Whatever skill set is required to get a job done we can pull off. We have both a local network and we have built friendships and relationships with major consultancy firms which we can call on at any moment to get the work done. In the energy sector, we have been part of the regional Interconnection of Electric Grids Project. We have done studies connecting Uganda and Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, Rwanda and DRC, Uganda and DRC. Some of those studies are currently under implementation and almost done. We have been very active in rural electrification. We have done design, construction supervision, and also the supporting fields that enable those projects to actually run. For example, you cannot talk about transmission lines without bringing in the social element as well. You need to make sure that the level of livelihood is restored to either the same status it was before or much better. All of these fields interplay with each other and we have been able to work as a team of very passionate, hardworking, and dedicated professionals. Here at Newplan, as part of our Vision 2020, we started a plan in 2015 on what we call “island mode” where we want to create a one stop center of excellence in various fields of professionalism in energy, social, and environmental sectors. If anyone comes into Uganda, they know that if they come to us, they will get everything they need. They can walk through the door, put their ideas on the table, we put their ideas into context, get the materials and test them, do the construction, and they can walk out the door that evening with their plans and a key. We are making good strides in that area.

What is your vision for the company in the next three years, the medium term? What do you want to achieve?

When Newplan started about 25 years ago, there were only 3 people. Now, we have 88. We are now looking at creating business units. We have actually set them up already and are now building capacity in that area. Each discipline operates as a self-contained unit. This is Crusader House. Any business you need is in this building - architecture, energy, social, environment. We are looking at an expansion whereby each of these units will operate as a company in its own right with its own financials. But everything will be focused on creating the island mode both here in Uganda and replicating the same model in all the countries of Africa and then globally. In three years’ time, we want to triple our turnover and have bases in Europe, Asia, the Americas, and everywhere else. For now, we want to start with East Africa and then spread out as we have already done. Our strategy seems to be working so far. We have a lot of goodwill both from the government of Uganda and with governments elsewhere that have seen our success model and they are willing to invite us to be a part of their system and replicate the same model. Hopefully, we will be able to share our experiences with local companies in various African countries and elsewhere so that they too can be able to learn from the success of Newplan.

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