Penguin Books Ltd.>, a UK management consultant, as a development corporation, the Uganda Development Corporation was the best of its kind in the world At the time of Ugandan independence in 1962, a report commissioned by the outgoing British administration and incoming government and overseen by the World Bank commented that "the UDC has energetically explored a wide range of industrial possibilities" among a backdrop of economic pessimism over coffee prices, which Uganda was (and remains) heavily reliant on.
"[7] By 1965, it had turned a post-tax profit every year since its creation (albeit with some help from tariff protection) and employed (including subsidiaries) over 18,000 people, engaged in projects as diverse as cement and cotton.
The UDC, which had previously provided startup equity before selling out to private investors, was now given the legal right to retain majority shareholding in companies it had been instrumental in setting up, and with the 1970 Nakivubo Pronouncement, which allowed for stakes up to 60 percent.
Because of this, the public sector was re-organised again in 1974 creating nine holding companies, further weakening the UDC - some of its original profitable industries were removed, leaving it with the same liabilities but fewer assets.
[12] Faced with mounting economic strife, in 1982 the incoming Obote administration opted to liberalise the economy, returning some government-owned companies to former owners, including the Asian conglomerates.
[12] By the time the law that re-created UDC wound its way through Uganda's parliament in 2015, only one legacy asset remained, Lake Katwe Salt Works, in Kasese District.
[4] New investments, focusing on public-private-partnerships, include the Kalangala Infrastructure Development Project, which is a joint venture between UDC, IDC of South Africa and InfraCo Holdings, of the United Kingdom.