“The EAC will have global connectivity from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. This will support the existing trade corridors in the movement of goods and people into the hinterland of the community. For Uganda to tap into this opportunity, there is need for quick and targeted investment in roads and related infrastructure” said Kadaga. She was delivering a ministerial statement to the Ugandan parliament about the admission of DRC into the EAC.
Kadaga wondered why Ugandans had not expressed their readiness to capture the opportunities that come with DR Congo’s admission into the EAC. In an earlier press conference held at the ministry of East African Community Affairs offices in Kampala, Kadaga said DRC’s admission into the EAC would be an opportunity for Ugandan businessmen to have their goods access an alternative market away from the bans and blockades put on Uganda’s goods by Kenya.
“Instead of battling with Kenya over our eggs and sugar, we shall take our commodities to a bigger market (DRC). Kenya has about 40 million people while DRC has 90 million people. We have a bigger market in DRC than in Kenya. For Ugandans, it is a big plus for us to now have more than one route of access to the sea”.
Between 2019 and 2021, Uganda and Kenya locked horns over the latter’s blockade on the entry of Uganda’s products into the Kenyan market. Some of the Ugandan commodities banned in Kenya include maize, sugar, milk, poultry and poultry products.
Daniel Birungi, the executive director of Uganda Manufacturers Association, said the entry of DRC into the East African Community presented a bigger market for Uganda’s goods. At least 60 per cent of the products consumed within the mineral-rich country transit through Uganda.
He added: “Uganda shares an over 700km border with the DRC, which is an opportunity for us Ugandan businessmen to do business.
“In 2021, Uganda exported $1.2 million of chicken and chicken products to DR Congo. Within the same period, DR Congo imported $128 million of chicken products. It means there’s a big gap that we can fill.”
“UMA has undertaken sector and country-specific engagement and we have settled for DRC as our flagship [export] country. To achieve this, we are in the final stages of organizing a trade mission to the DRC. We shall hold roadshows and trade fares across the provinces of the DRC. We have also considered embassy engagements with our embassy in DRC and DR Congo’s embassy in Uganda. This is to ensure sustenance of bilateral trade among the two countries,” Birungi explained.
Asked what it would take for Uganda to harness its business potential with DRC, Birungi said: “Uganda should undertake a three-pronged approach of doing bilateral trade. When Kenya is entering a market, they undertake a three-pronged approach that has an insurance company, a bank, and a supermarket. We can also say we shall take in Centenary/ Post Bank, Statewide Insurance Company (SWICO), and Mega Standard supermarket. This could help us improve ourselves in doing business.”
He added that the government needed to invest more in both hard and soft infrastructure.
“It is true we need more roads in the DRC to ease the movement of goods. We also need soft infrastructure like export insurance so that Ugandans are not afraid to send their trucks into DR Congo which is riddled with cases of insecurity. If there’s insurance on exports, a businessman won’t be scared of M23 rebel groups stealing their goods on transit since there’s insurance.”
Wilbrod Owor, the executive director of Uganda Bankers Association, said the three-pronged approach would form a well-structured basis for Uganda to take advantage of the DRC market. “We need to have a neatly-structured strategy. The strategy could be financial, business or infrastructure-oriented.”
Owor confirmed that some individual banks registered in Uganda were considering entering the DRC market.
“Even if these banks intending to enter the DRC market may not be indigenous Ugandan banks, at least they are also operating in Uganda. This makes it easy for Ugandan traders to do business while in the DRC.”
Owor recommended that a trade attache or a trade desk be opened at most embassies where Uganda is interested in doing business. He explained that it would be the role of the trade attache to do market research for Uganda’s locally-manufactured goods.
According to data from Bank of Uganda, as at January 2022, DRC imported goods worth $74.3 million from Uganda. DRC eclipsed Kenya, which imported $40.9 million worth of goods from Uganda. For years, Kenya had been Uganda’s largest export destination within the East African Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa trading blocs.
DRC was admitted as a full member of the EAC on March 29, 2022, during the 19th extraordinary summit of the East African Community Heads of State held via video conference. The DRC will be expected to have completed the entire process by October 1, 2022.
inarticle} inarticle}