The requirement
Ugandan licence holders are required to submit environmental impact assessments and restoration plans, with the National Environment Management Authority and the Directorate of Geological Survey and Mines sharing oversight of rehabilitation obligations.
The financial assurance gap
A restoration plan without a funded, ring-fenced instrument behind it transfers the liability to the state by default. Bonds sized at licensing and never revalued lose their meaning over a decade of inflation and scope change, and abandoned workings across the country demonstrate the outcome.
What would fix it
Periodic revaluation of closure cost estimates, assurance instruments held outside the operator's balance sheet, and a public register of open rehabilitation obligations by licence. The register alone would change behaviour, because it makes the liability visible to lenders.