Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Monday commissioned the Free Zones Export Facility at Entebbe International Airport and also launched the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation strategy aimed at promoting trade within the continent and globally.
On the same day the President flagged off the first exports of products to West Africa, specifically Nigeria.
The event run under the theme: “Uganda’s next level growth driven by Regional Export Opportunity and AfCFTA”.
“I am pleased to kick off the journey for the first formal exports of products to West Africa under AfCFTA which Uganda and 44 other countries signed in 2018. Even with negotiations on the matter of the rules of origin, tax rates, non-tariff barriers, it shouldn’t take this long 7 years to activate this work,” the President said.
“It should have been done much earlier because I’m aware that more than 45% of all our value-added goods and services are traded within the region and the African continent,” he added.
The President lauded counterpart Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria for allowing Uganda to work together with his government on opening Nigerian air space for flights into each other’s territories and making room for Ugandan products under AfCFTA.
“I am told we have a trade representative based in Lagos to support the opening of this market and I will give him all the necessary support needed for the process to be fully concluded with both the Federal Republic of Nigeria government and the AfCFTA Secretary General in Accra,” he said.
Museveni disclosed that plans are underway to open up similar facilities in the four regions of the country to make it faster for exporters to aggregate, process and get to the market more easily.
“I remember I received a delegation of fresh fruits and vegetables people from Europe and our young man who is the trade envoy in the Balkans for Uganda in October 2023. I directed that on account of the work for Uganda in the export sector, they should be given this facility for 5 years along with some 5 acres of land near the airport. This is to make their investment and export work logistics cheaper,” he said.
“This export facility we are commissioning today for coffee roasting, packaging and export along with fruits, vegetables and flowers is the first step to many facilities we plan to open in at least the four corners of the country to make it faster for exporters to aggregate, process and get to the markets more easily.”
President Museveni directed that the government helps the Serbian trade envoy to assemble equipment for roasting and storing coffee to make coffee drinking in the country and region easier and create jobs for the youths.
“I don’t want to hear any further delays. I am directing the PACEID committee and the Minister of Trade Hon. [Francis] Mwebesa to quickly establish why there are delays and report to me after the coming holidays,” he said.
The chairperson of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID), Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo, outlined the aims of the event that involved the commissioning of the first products going to the market of Nigeria, handing over the facilities to the investors and export credit funding.
Rwabwogo, however, voiced concern over the delays on implementing the export support strategy.
