By Spy Uganda
Whereas Uganda is grappling with the effects of COVID-19 on the country’s economy, the Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng is reportedly harvesting hundreds of millions from growing cannabis or weed as it is commonly known.
Our Spies contend that whereas there are several companies, both local and foreign, pleading with the State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization Evelyn Anite and the Uganda Investment Authority for licenses to grow marijuana in Uganda, Dr Aceng has already helped Together Pharma, an Israeli company, to secure a license to grow weed for export.
It should be noted that currently, cannabis growing is such a very lucrative business venture to the extent that business experts project Uganda will be the next cannabis hotspot in Africa in the next few years, once government reviews its colonial laws that prohibit cannabis growing.
We have established that one of the companies in the venture called Together Pharma, which had applied for license to grow Cannabis, had its license reportedly “suspended” (not cancelled) following demands for legal clarity from other cabinet ministers especially the state minister for Investment, Evelyn Anite.
Surprisingly, this Israeli company, Together Pharma, got approval to start planting this lucrative crop despite queries from some cabinet ministers. The operation was licensed by the State Agriculture Ministry and cleared by the Uganda Investments Authority to cultivate for the international medical marijuana market.
However, given the tedious circumstances involved in the process of securing this license, no one knows how it was conducted and still no one knows how Together Pharma managed to beat other companies that had also applied for the same license.
But during our investigation, we discovered that all these processes of processing and securing the license and starting to grow marijuana might have been influenced by the Minister of Health since she sits on the cabinet. This same Minister is profiled together with other four individuals to be in control of Together Pharma.
According the Company profile, Together Pharma has Nissim Bracha, who acts as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nir Sosinsky who is the Co-CEO in Globus Pharma (the activity company) and Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, a Pediatrician, a medical practitioner specialized in diseases as the Director and controlling shareholder in Together Pharma
Sections of the media reported recently that Together Pharma had made a cannabis harvest from Uganda and exported the consignment worth billions of shillings.
The Company CEO Nissim Bracha indicated then that Together Pharma had completed the first harvesting of cannabis inflorescence at its farm in Uganda on June 18 and sowed another 10 dunams on the company’s farm in Uganda on the same day.
According to the statement, the harvested produce was to be marketed to one of the European countries.
However, this first harvest put into suspicion, a pronouncement by state minister for Investment Evelyn Anite that the government had suspended the company’s license. Anite said that when she was told about the company’s license, she found that not a lot of research had been done before it was granted.
The Health minister, Jane Acheng also told the media in April that cabinet wanted assurances from the company that growing medical marijuana wouldn’t have a negative impact on the economy. The government said it had set up a committee to look into the issue and report part back to the cabinet. That they would base on that report on whether to award licenses or not. This has not happened.
Together Pharma has sales agreements in Canada and in Germany of a total scope of approximately 78 tons a year and the same company with its establishment of a greenhouse site in the south of the country has the ability to produce approximately 34 tons annually.
It is said that Together Pharma complies with all stringent requirements of the MCU’s (Medical Cannabis Unit at the Ministry of Health) and the company has licenses for the entire value chain, enabling it to have business flexibility, thanks to the Minister’s connections.
