By Aggrey BabaResponding to a question on whether he is related to National Unity Platform’s (NUP) Mityana Municipality MP Francis Zaake, Uganda’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), His Excellency Zaake Kibedi, has dismissed the connection, saying the two only share a name but have no biological ties. “It’s just a coincidence of names, because Honorable Zaake is in Muganda, and I am Musoga from Bugweri” Kibedi said. Kibedi made the remarks during an exclusive interview with Mulengera News journalist Aggrey Baba on the daily Morning Briefing podcast, where he discussed Uganda-UAE relations, the forthcoming Uganda-UAE Business Forum and the welfare of Ugandans living and working in the UAE. He said the business forum, which will be held from October 26 to 29 across four UAE states (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman) is the fifth edition of a platform created to bring Ugandan and UAE businesses together. “This is going to be the 5th edition of the Uganda UAE Business Forum, a platform we created to provide an opportunity for Ugandan and UAE businesses to talk to each other,” Kibedi explained. He said the major objective is to promote Uganda as a competitive destination for investment while also promoting Ugandan products in the UAE and the wider Middle East market. Kibedi explained that the forum is important not only to investors but also to ordinary Ugandans because increased trade and investment can create jobs, markets and income opportunities. He noted that the UAE has become Uganda’s leading destination for exports, with Ugandan agricultural products such as avocados, sweet potatoes, chili peppers, pineapples and passion fruits finding a growing market there. However, he warned that Uganda still has enormous untapped potential because of challenges relating to the quality and consistency of its products. “If we address these problems, then we can even grow this market and even expand it 10 times,” he said. The forum will bring together investors, exporters, financial institutions, researchers, entrepreneurs and academics. The Ugandan Embassy is working with UAE chambers of commerce and Ugandan institutions including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uganda National Chamber of Commerce, Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Uganda Manufacturers Association, Uganda Tourism Board and Uganda Investment Authority, according to Kibedi. The former MP also revealed that more than one hundred fifty (150,000) Ugandans are now living and working in the UAE, compared to fewer than fifty thousand (50,000) when he took up his posting there in 2018. He said the rapid growth of Ugandan working in the UAE has also contributed to increased remittances, which have risen from about USD 50 million to more than USD 350 million. The figures, the ambassador said demonstrate the growing importance of the UAE to Uganda’s economy and the need to strengthen the relationship between the two countries. Kibedi, a former Youth MP representing Eastern Uganda in the Eighth Parliament, has served in Uganda’s foreign service for nearly 14 years. He was appointed ambassador to Denmark in 2012, where he served for five and a half years and was accredited to the Denmark, Sweden, among other countries, before taking up his current posting in the UAE in 2018. He will mark eight years as Uganda’s ambassador in the UAE in November 2026. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).