Africa-Press – Uganda. The government is planning to support entrepreneurs to exploit their opportunities in the largely untapped domestic trade sector.
This was revealed during the launch of the Strengthening Agribusiness Resilience and Competitiveness (STAR) project in Gulu City last week.
Mr Francis Mwebesa, the minister of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives, said the ministry is set to table before Cabinet its findings on the state of the trade sector and how to revamp it.
“To address the challenges of standards, markets, and storage facilities, the ministry has put through Uganda Warehouse and Seed System Authority to undertake a nationwide survey of the existing storage facilities,” Mr Mwebesa said.
He added:“The ministry will soon present its findings and recommendations to Cabinet on how to ensure that we change the narrative.”
Mr Mwebesa regretted that the north and northeast Uganda ranked last in terms of trade and investment despite significant efforts by the government.
Ms Grace Ajalo, an event and hotel management entrepreneur in Kitgum Municipality, blamed the slow growth of business on financial illiteracy.
“These challenges lie around inaccessible capital, high taxes by the Uganda Revenue Authority while doing business, and unstable power supply,” Ms Ajalo said.
Mr Richard Akomi Adiradira, the principal technical officer of business development services at the Trade ministry, said limited access to market and business information services and the dominant informality among the small and medium size entreprisess continued to curtail their growth.
“The markets are available, but the people are not aware….They also don’t register and don’t formalise their business, which makes it very hard for the government to plan for them,” he said.
The STAR project implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC) with funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), intends to improve the competitiveness of the cassava, shea, and oilseed sectors in the region, which has been identified as having significant potential for growth, and investment.
Ms Ahn Jihee, the KOICA country director, said the project will support farmers and agribusinesses as well as enhancing the capacity of local disaster risk management committees to respond to climate change.
Study
According to projections by the Uganda National Household Surveys, domestic trade, the single highest contributor to the services sector Gross Domestic Product in Uganda, has been among the leading contributors to revenue generation.
For instance, revenues from domestic trade activities increased from Shs2.402 trillion in FY2013/2014 to Shs4.885 trillion in FY2019/2020, with total revenue increasing from Shs8.373 trillion to Shs17.126 trillion over the same period.
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