As Uganda announced the names of the firms which have applied for oil blocks in the country’s first licensing round, East Africa Politics & Security took a look at the ruling National Resistance Movement’s (NRM) actions as it prepares for the February 2016 election campaign, which runs parallel to the licensing round. This week we looked at the how the ruling NRM is gearing up for the campaign financially, and seeking to establish itself more firmly in the post-Yoweri Museveni years to come. Its future plans have implications for foreign investors looking to do business in the country.

President Yoweri Museveni’s NRM continues to shift through the gears in getting the party in shape for the February 2016 polls. While a NRM victory is the likely outcome, the party is taking no chances by ensuring that the membership is motivated and that the party can be funded through the upcoming general election and beyond that.

In fundraising, the NRM managed to raise US$4.7 million in one night for the construction of NRM House, the new party headquarters. The proposed 27 storey tower is planned for a site on Hannington Road, below the Serena Hotel on Nakasero Hill, one of the city’s most exclusive areas.

The fundraising event was notable for the number of business people invited. Leaked invitation lists showed a mixed group of Ugandan members of the business community, Asian-Ugandans, as well as overseas investors. The event was organised by NRM Secretary General Justine Kasule Lumumba and Treasurer Rosemary Namayanja.

One former State House official who has spoken to East Africa Politics & Security highlighted the likely pressures on foreign investors to direct political contributions to the NRM. The party’s ambitions make this a likely scenario. As President Museveni nears the end of his time in office, the NRM is seeking to re-position itself as a party for those with ambition. It has undergone a branding makeover, with a heightened presence on social media designed to appeal to youth. The ongoing member registration drive is part of the project, carried out in order to ensure it has the numbers to mobilise at election time. The vision, we are told, is of NRM having a well-funded nationwide bureaucracy that can provide opportunities to ambitious youth for employment within the party and the political and business opportunities that may come with that.