The Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy was launched in Kampala yesterday. The idea behind this initiative is to boost small and medium local manufacturers who, left on their own, are unable to compete at par with their foreign counterparts.
The policy requires government institutions to procure at least 20 per cent of the total goods and services they use from local sources. At the same time, a Member of Parliament has initiated a private member’s bill on local content that, if enacted, will compel foreign companies to use mostly Ugandan goods and services where available.
Kassanda North’s Patrick Nsanba wants to see foreign companies using indigenous labour, goods and services in a bid to protect Ugandan manufacturers from unfair competition, create jobs and reduce the country’s trade deficit.
The Ugandan economy is largely in foreign hands. The major banks are foreign-owned. All the infrastructural projects consuming the bulk of our budget are being undertaken by foreign contractors.
The main mobile phone companies are foreign-owned. The main retail chains are foreign-owned and more than 70 per cent of their stock, including agricultural products, is imported. Some even employ foreigners as tellers and cleaners!
However well-intentioned they might be, foreign firms will not develop Uganda for us. Ugandans and their businesses have got to take centre stage.
Therefore, the Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy and the proposed local content bill are long overdue. The real challenge is on the government and other stakeholders taking it seriously.
At the moment, the right noises are coming from the right places. President Museveni said in a speech last year that all government agencies would be compelled to purchase stuff such as furniture and textiles from local suppliers. He vowed that Uganda would not remain a supermarket of foreign goods. What remains to be seen is whether he will walk the talk.
But it’s not about the government per se. There is need for a mindset change amongst many Ugandans who think that imported items are necessarily superior to home-made stuff.
With this policy in place, the onus is on all of us – the government to walk the talk, Ugandans to embrace it, and local manufacturers to satisfy the demand with quality, well-packaged products at competitive prices.