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SPECIAL REPORT
East African Business Week I February 23 - March 1, 2015

MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND COOPERATIVES

Doing Business in Uganda, East Africa & beyond
East African Business Week I February 23 - March 1, 2015

Strategic interventions have promoted growth

Trade ministry provides
enabling environment
 Closer to home, Uganda’s traded goods are
steadily getting more integrated in the East African
Community, South Sudan and eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo.
Further afield and by way of regional trade
agreements, the country’s export markets have
expanded in the European Union (EU), the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
and Asia.
The growth in Uganda’s trade is attributed to
a number of interventions by the government
through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives. Others involved have included relevant line
ministries together with Uganda’s Development
partners and the private sector.
The Ministry has the top responsibility of developing a regulatory framework to create an enabling environment for doing business and enhance trade.
Among the policies being implemented include;
 Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) Policy, to promote locally made products.
 The Competition and Consumer Protection Policy
 the National Accreditation Policy
 Principles for the enactment of the New Sugar
Control Act
 Principles for drafting the Accreditation Bill
 Principles for drafting Legal/Trade Metrology
 Principles for Industrial and Scientific Metrology
Other bills and policies that the Ministry is working
on to streamline trade and industry include;
 Trade Licensing Bill
 Uganda Development Corporation Bill
 Cooperatives Act Amendment
 Anti-Counterfeits Bill
 Competition and Consumer Protection Policy and
Bill
 Iron and Steel Policy
 Packaged Water Policy
 Grains and Cereals Policy
 Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
Policy
 Trade in Services Policy
 World Trade Organization (WTO) Implementation
Policy
 COMESA Treat Implementation Bill
 Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Policy
 Metrology Policy
 Accreditation for Conformity Assessment Policy
 New Sugar Bill
 Leather and Leather products Policy
The Ministry is also busy in undertaking a number of strategic initiatives and interventions to promote domestic trade.
For example, through the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), a wide range of competitive
Ugandan products have been developed from various raw materials including bananas, grains, cereals, fruits, meat, poultry, fish, ginger, vegetables,
mushrooms, tubers, hibiscus, moringa, irish potatoes, honey and bamboo shoots.
These have found export markets abroad and
helped to diversify Uganda’s export items.
Through the Uganda National Bureau of Stan-

dards (UNBS), the Ministry is also encouraging
manufacturers to strive for higher levels of safety
and quality.
In the meantime implementation of the Preshipment Verification of Conformity (PVoC) programme is success fully going ahead to minimize
the risk of unsafe and substandard goods entering
Uganda. The measure not only protects consumers against dangerous and substandard imported
products, but through PVoC, the government has
reduced the entry of substandard products by
about 25%.
In tandem with this policy, the government has
continued t o gradually eliminate Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBS) to facilitate the smooth flow of trade
within and across common borders.
At one time, Ugandan milk exports to Kenya were
impeded by a complicated certification system.
Such was the situation that one Kenyan processor
risked losing a $1 million market. However once
the Kenyan and Ugandan authorities got together,
the certification procedures was made simpler.
Another frustrating NTB for business people
HON. Amelia Kyambadde minister of trade,
industries and cooperatives.

Intra- EAC trade

5.5

Dollars billion
Fiscal year 2012

involved the lack of a harmonized procedures
manual. This caused constant delays in clearing
of imports. Prompted by the East African Community Heads of State, the members countries
soon agreed to introduce harmonized procedures
manuals and this was adopted during the meeting
of SCTIFI on May 30, 2012.
Removing NTBs is a constant process. With the
support TradeMark East Africa (TMEA), the Ministry
has set up a National Committee on the elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers, and a Unit at the Ministry
to focus on the elimination of NTBs.
Through this initiative, an NTB Reporting system
through which the business community can report
NTBs and have them hoepfully quickly resolved,
was launched in July 2014.
Complaints can be made by mobile phone or
email. The user dials USSD Code *201 hash and follows instructions to select the appropriate NTB to
report and then submits a complaint.
To date, over 40 complaints have been reported
and resolved. The most common reported NTBs include the unstable URA Asycuda world system for
clearance, delays at the weighbridges, delays
and charges at the Mombasa port in Kenya and

the auctioning of vehicles destined for Uganda at
Mombasa port.
Through the same initiative to eliminate NTBs,
other achievements have been realized;
*Cash bonds on Uganda-destined, goods mainly
on high value products like cars, electrical product
and sugar by the Republic of Kenya, were removed.
*Uganda and Kenya harmonized Axle Load control measures on weighbridges by implementing a Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of up to 52 tonnes
depending on vehicle configuration, and also removed the unnecessary check-points and weighbridges along the Northern Corridor.
*The Kenyan Government removed requirements
for physical inspection, transit permits, payment of
transit fees, and possession of import permits from
countries of destination by Ugandan exporters of
Hides and Skins.
*The 16% VAT on services (Port Charges) for all
goods cleared for transit into Uganda has been removed since there was no mechanism for claiming the VAT by Ugandan-registered clearing firms.
*Uganda Revenue Authority established an Electronic Cargo Tracking System. It aims at eliminating
delays and costs of escorting transit cargo to the

4.5

Dollars billion
Fiscal year 2011

borders and avoiding short landing of cargo.
*Uganda and Rwanda signed a bilateral Agreement on the Removal of NTBs and constituted a
Monitoring Committee on the elimination of NTBs
between the two countries.
The five member states of the EAC are now more
committed to eliminating NTBs. According to the
latest EAC Time Bound Programme report on the
elimination of identified NTBs, dated September
2014, 59 have been cumulatively resolved, 22 remain unresolved while eight new ones have been
reported.
Closer economic integration has resulted in increasing volumes of trade which is encouraging
business people to think on a bigger scale.
At the regional level, data from the EAC Secretariat shows that intra-EAC grew to $5.5 billion in
2012, up from $4.5 billion recorded in 2011.