The government of Uganda through Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) has spoken out Leaf Tobacco and Commodities Limited and Meridian Tobacco Company Limited.
This is after media reports indicated that Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho aka Salim Saleh (in featured photo) co-owns the companies with Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho Salim Saleh in question with Tribert Rujugiro Ayabatwa , a multi-millionaire Rwandan national running a string of enterprises in many African countries including Uganda.
Local media recently reported that that the border standoff between Rwanda and Uganda has been escalated by Kampala’s outright refusal to close businesses owned by Rujugiro in Uganda.
However, in a statement dated March27, 2017, Bemanya Twebaze, the URSB Registrar General said that Saleh has no relationship with the two companies.
“…It is alleged, among others that, Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho Salim Saleh, rtd. is a shareholder in both companies,” Twebaze said in a statement, adding that records kept by the Registrar of Companies at URSB show that the two entities are corporate bodies, registered/incorporated under the Companies Act, laws of Uganda, as limited liability Companies.
“Leaf Tobacco & Commodities Ltd is registered as a Foreign owned Company, while Meridian Tobacco Company Ltd is incorporated as a Local Company owned by two persons, none of whom is Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho Salim Saleh, rtd,” the statement reads.
It adds: “This is therefore to clarify that Gen. Saleh is not and has never been a shareholder nor a Director in the said two Companies.”
Rujugiro is the proprietor of Pan African Tobacco Group (PTG), Africa’s largest indigenous producer of cigarettes and other Tobacco products. The company recently celebrated its 40th anniversary.
