Uganda’s State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite, has proposed the creation of a dedicated market, “Uganda Town,” to showcase and sell products manufactured locally. This initiative aims to tackle Uganda’s long-standing unemployment issues.
“I want us to have a Uganda town where we would have all the products that are being manufactured in Uganda being sold in that market,” Anite emphasized during her weekly “Chat with Anite” on X.
Anite stressed that importing products, as seen in marketplaces like China Town, doesn’t create jobs for Ugandans but instead supports foreign economies. “The fact that it is China town, and all the products are being imported from China, we are donating jobs,” she noted.
Uganda’s unemployment rate stands at 8%, and Anite believes that promoting imported goods is not the solution. “In a country where there is unemployment, which is at this rate, unemployment is at 8% the only jobs that are available that you can brag about are the public service jobs and these are just 471,000 jobs, and young people are crying about unemployment, and then we start supporting other people’s products, meaning that we are glorifying them!”
The minister emphasized the importance of adding value to local products to boost the economy. “You are selling products of low value and of good quality, but look here, we can still make products of low value and good quality,” she said.
Anite cited examples of untapped potential in Uganda’s agricultural sector, such as cattle and honey production. “Can you imagine that with all the grass that we have, okay, that we could actually do cattle, that we could do beef, that we could do goat rearing?”
She also highlighted the need for value addition in the coffee sector. “How much value addition are we doing on our coffee? It is until recently that we’ve grown our coffee, export of coffee to 9 million bags of coffee. But we are still exporting coffee beans. We must make sure that actually we’re doing value addition to our coffee.”
Anite encouraged coffee farmers to explore value-added products to increase their income. “There are over four products that I know you can get out of coffee. You can get body scrub, you can get body skin products, skincare products, you can get body Vaseline, You can drink that coffee.”
Industrialization is key to resolving Uganda’s unemployment issues, according to Anite. “We have to be very deliberate and credit jobs. And how can we do that by industrializing our country. And let me tell you, it is not about big industries. I have traveled to China, to India, I can tell you the cottage industries outnumber the big industries.”
The government has implemented incentives to encourage entrepreneurship in the manufacturing sector. “Government is giving incentives, and one of the incentives that we have in place is that anybody who comes in the sector of manufacturing, we give them land for free.”
Anite’s proposal for “Uganda Town” seeks to address unemployment and promote local manufacturing.
