By Andrew Irumba
A German investor Nikolaj Roleder, the CEO of Roleder & Ebert GmbH has put Uganda Government on notice that it risks being blacklisted on the international market as one of the unsafest African countries international multibillion investors must avoid venturing into, unless they clean their ‘house’.
This, after he was conned over shs3.7billion in what now looks to be a fake UREA fertilizer supply contract deal purportedly valued at USD 240million!
Speaking to our chief Spy Andrew Irumba virtually on Monday, from Germany, Roleder expressed deep concern that even when he reported the matter at CPS police, he’s yet to get assistance and the fraudsters are at large as they aim at their next victim. This, he said can cause a country to be put in redline and an advisory may be issued warning international business community to take precautionary measures before choosing to invest in the country, unless such rogue individuals are publically seen being tried in competent courts and moneys recovered.
How It All Started
In a police statement recorded at Kampala CPS in May 2024, Roleder says in 2023 via his company website, he was approached by a Ugandan in the names of Vicent Ssemboga who said the Ugandan Gov’t was looking for a competent company to supply it with the UREA fertilizers.
Nikolaj says he later received an invitation, purportedly from the Ugandan Gov’t and signed by the Minister of Presidency Hon Milly Babalanda, inviting him for a meeting to discuss further on the aforementioned deal.
”The invitation was for me and other shareholders. So myself and partners Nejad Davood, Moisiel Eduard and Reimer Rudolf travelled to Uganda and when we arrived at Entebbe International airport, we were picked by Vicent Ssemboga and taken to a place where we met a group of four people who introduced themselves as Uganda Government Contracts Committee members,” narrates Nikolaj.
He further says that after that meeting, they were told they were to get the deal but only after registering a local company that would be contracted, something they also accepted.
”We accepted but because we didn’t know the procedures, Vicent got for us another female lawyer (names and chambers withheld) who registered for us a company in the names of Roleder & Ebert Limited and we flew back to Germany. After this we were asked to pay a share capital of the company which was USD45,000, which we paid that female lawyer’s company bank accounts,” adds Nikolaj.
He says later after spending about $484,300, he realized it was a fake deal and everything Vicent and his colleagues were cooking was fraudulent and as a result of this, he rushed to report the case to Kampala Central Police Station which he says is yet to even arrest the shoes or vests of the suspects.
Vicent Responds
Via a WhatsApp call from Kenya last night, the prime suspect in this scandal, Vicent Ssemboga dismissed the allegations and instead blamed the investors for reaching Uganda on his invitation and later abandoning him and started working behind his back until they were coned by people he didn’t recommend to work with them. I’m the one who brought those people here, and it’s true there was a ‘possibility’ of supplying Ministry of Agriculture with fertilizer, because they needed it, but those people reached here and abandoned me. They reached here and got in touch with power brokers and they kept me out of the deal. Remember we had agreed that my commission would be 5% if they get the business, they reached here, got in touch with big shots in the system and threw me through the window, after being fleeced now they are framing me. Ask them if they have ever given me a single coin,”
Ssemboga Vicent’s profile on WhatsApp, using a Kenyan line (+254 100 71432..) shows he deals in Gold, Copper, Diamond and Uranium under a company called World Quality Minerals Ltd. Statements made by Roleder at CPS police Kampala, and the phone interactions with our Chief Spy describe Vicent as the mastermind in the deal.
It should also be noted that Roleder said when he contacted the Ministry, he was told that the Local Purchase Order number (LPO no.) quoted in the suspected fake contract offer letter was genuine, although the order had expired. This correlates very well with Vicent’s assertion that there was indeed a ‘possibility’ of supplying the Government with fertilizer, and Vincent knew about it, the reason he contacted Roleder. This would mean Vicent has a cartel in the ministry that he deals with to get information about such deals. What’s not clear now is who sat with Vicent outside ministry and created a contracts committee and awarded Roleder a US dollar deal 240million worth of fertilizer supply contract which never was!
This comes at the foot heels when President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is getting more tired of corruption that has become cancerous to the extent that as we write this, he has taken his entire cabinet to Kyankwanzi to realign, reassemble and retool them against the looming, inevitable fight against the monster. In our next episode, we bring communication evidence, Bank transactions to law chambers among others.Watch the space for next update…
