Archive for year: 2019

Coffee cooperatives have rejected the proposed move by the Government to have the Uganda Coffee Development Authority(UCDA) register all coffee farmers, saying the move is a duplication of already existing regulations governing the coffee sector.

Clause 26 of the recently mooted National Coffee bill 2018 currently before Parliament provides that the UCDA “shall register all coffee farmers” in Uganda, with the bill defining a coffee farmer as “a person who grows coffee for commercial purposes.”

The Bill has however attracted a chorus of opposition from sections of the public who have accused the government of attempting to disproportionately control the coffee trade.

In particular, actors in the coffee sector have picked issue with clause 28 of the Bill, which empowers UCDA to de-register a farmer if the authority is convinced that he or she has not complied with the terms and conditions of their registration as a coffee farmer.

Coffee cooperatives in particular have criticized the move to register coffee farmers as an unnecessary duplication of the work they’re already doing. David Lukwata, the General Manager of Kibinge Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative told theCooperator that instead of re-registering farmers, UCDA should liaise with cooperatives and get data about coffee farmers from them.

“We have updated systems of information on coffee farmers and we are much willing to offer this information to UCDA if they want the data of coffee farmers to extend different services. We are not against any good move by the government to help coffee farmers, but we do not think the inconvenience of re-registration is warranted,” Lukwata says.

Lukwata also criticized the Bill’s provision that UCDA establish a coffee auction system to act as “an alternative to the day-today selling of coffee.” Although Agriculture Minister Vincent Ssempijja has defended the provision under clause 52 of the bill as intended to offer farmers more market options, Lukwata argues that the move adds another layer of bureaucracy that will inconvenience farmers who opt for that option.

“We have been working with UCDA after buying coffee from farmers and they do the assessing before we export so we do not appreciate the necessity of the auctioning system as suggested in the bill,” Mr Lukwata adds.

He also expressed concern at several other provisions of the Bill, particularly clause 54 which prescribes punishments as long as five years in prison and fines as much as Shs.800,000 for a wide spectrum of defaults from neglecting a coffee farm to exporting coffee without a license.

“Farmers need to be properly sensitized about what for example constitutes an appropriate storage facility, or what proper post-harvest handling of coffee entails, before being sanctioned,” he says.

Under the proposed law, anybody who sets up a store or warehouse that does not meet the requirements for storing coffee and anybody who dries coffee on bare ground risk imprisonment of up to two years and 5years respectively or a fine of up to Shs.800,000 and Shs. 240,000 respectively or both.

Proponents of the Bill led by Mr. Ssempijja insist that the law is intended to strengthen quality controls and streamline the activities along the entire coffee value chain including on-farm activities, as a way of improving the quality of our coffee to command a bigger share of the international market.

Uganda remains Africa’s second-largest producer of coffee after Ethiopia, and last year, according to figures from UCDA, the country exported 4.5million bags of coffee worth $492million and targets to export 20million bags of coffee by 2025.

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KAMPALA, Uganda: Women business cooperators along the Uganda- Rwanda border have called upon the East African Community to intervene in the Uganda-Rwanda diplomatic stalemate with a view of re-opening Uganda’s common border with Rwanda at Katuna.

M/s Miria Akankwasa, the chairperson of Katuna Women Cross-border Multipurpose Traders Cooperative says that as a result of the continued closure of the border, women business communities along the border were choking on loans and were susceptible to defaulting, thanks to lost cross-border business.

“As Cross border women traders, we are really suffering. We have lost a lot of money since the border closed, women are shifting from homes because of microfinance loans. The loan guys are hunting for the women traders, our children are not schooling because some used to study across Rwanda,” she said. Akankwasa. She noted that because Rwandans are restricted from coming to Uganda, Ugandans along the border also do not free to travel to Rwanda

Akankwasa was speaking at a public dialogue to mark 20 years of East African Community (EAC) held at Hotel Africana in Kampala on Thursday last week. The dialogue was jointly organized by SEATINI- Uganda, the Eastern Africa Sub-Region Support Initiative(EASSI) and Centre for Social Justice in Food and Health (CEFROHT).

Speaking at the same event, the SEATINI Country Director M/s Jane Nalunga urged East Africans to put pressure on their leaders to implement regional and international commitments: “When you sign the treaties, it is imperative that you respect them by implementing them. Let’s embrace the EAC integration with joy. These are the successes that we want to reflect on as we celebrate today, and 20 more years to come,” she said.

Under the EAC Common Market Protocol that came into effect in January 2010, all EAC member states are supposed to allow free movement of people and goods from member states across their borders as a way of increasing intra-EAC trade and promote regional integration. Rwanda’s unilateral closure of its main border with Uganda in late February this year has however seen a significant reduction in trade volumes between the two countries, and Rwandan citizens have been barred by their government from traveling to Uganda.

The EAC treaty was established on 30th November 1999 and came into force in July 2000. From the founding 3 member states of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, the block has grown to presently six members, admitting Rwanda, Burundi and most recently South Sudan along the way. Recently, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo have also applied to join.

The Permanent Secretary Ministry of East African Community Affairs. M/s Edith Mwanje said she was optimistic about the EAC’s prospects, noting there has been significant progress on the Customs Union front: “The implementation of the elimination of non-tariff barriers has helped increase trade volumes between member-states” she said.

Challenges

Mwanje, however, noted that none payment of annual subscription fees by member states is undermining the progress of the Community. She also highlighted competition from other Economic blocs such as the Common Market for East and Southern Africa(COMESA) as another challenge.

These, coupled with on and off bilateral tensions between member-states culminating in non-tarrif barriers has seen intra-EAC trade suffer significant decline in the recent past, with member countries exploring alternative markets. Between 2013 and 2017 for example, intra-EAC trade fell from $3.5billion to $2.4billion, and analysts argue that the recent bilateral tensions between Uganda and Rwanda mean it(trade) won’t be recovering soon.

Already, the standoff has already significantly hurt Uganda’s exports to Rwanda, with figures from URA and Bank of Uganda noting that Uganda earned just $34.12million in the first quarter of 2019, the lowest quarterly earnings from Rwanda in 9 years!

Hon. Fred Mukasa Mbidde, Uganda’s representative to the East African Legislative Assembly Member(EALA) called upon leaders to always listen to citizens’ concerns about the community, arguing that its them (the citizens) that the Community is meant to serve: “Traders, when you tell your leaders what they are supposed to do, that is not politics. It’s your right.” He said.

He argued that what brought the first EAC crumbling in the 70s was political differences between leaders of member-states, which are emerging even today: “People don’t just close borders. Rwanda is complaining that its citizens are jailed in Uganda without trial. These are people issues – allegations that have to be verified by a joint verification committee,” said Mbidde.

M/s Sheila Kawamara Mishambi, a former Member of EALA and the Executive Director EASSI expressed disappointment with what she called the reluctance of EAC leaders to resolve the Uganda-Rwanda stalemate, arguing that it was affecting hundreds of ordinary lives:

“The people at the borders are East Africans. They feel the pinch and when borders are closed, they suffer most,” she said. “You are bringing on board DRC with all their own problems to be added to South Sudan at a time when we’re failing to resolve old misunderstandings between Rwanda and Uganda. How do you expect to handle all these problems,” she asked.

Ambassador Nathan Irumba, Executive Director SEATINI called upon member countries to obey the Community’s laws, noting that only then can the Community move towards full integration: “The challenges facing EAC stem from failure to obey the laws. Leaders forget that after ratifying the protocols, they are supposed to implement them to the dot,” he said.

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Kampala, Uganda: Uganda will next week host the 3rd China-Africa Expo next week, the Uganda Investment Authority has announced.

According to a joint communique released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in collaboration with China Africa Development Fund, Uganda Investment Authority, and Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the China-Uganda Industrial Capacity Cooperation Exposition will take place in Kampala next week, from the 23rd -26th July 2019, at UMA showgrounds Lugogo.

The Expo, the first in Uganda, will be the third in a series of China-Africa expos, with the first two having been held in Kenya and Ethiopia in November and December 2018 respectively. The expos are part of the “eight major initiatives” announced by President Xi Jinping at Summit for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held in Beijing in September 2018.

During the summit attended by the majority of Africa’s Heads of State, President Xi announced that China would launch “eight major initiatives” together with Africa to draw a blueprint for the development of China-Africa relations in the new era, and build a platform for economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa.

Next week’s China-Uganda Expo will attract 43 enterprises from 12 provinces and cities of China seeking to explore investment opportunities in Uganda in a wide range of industries including engineering machinery, energy equipment, agricultural processing equipment, automobiles, among others.

Although Uganda opened diplomatic relations with China at independence in 1962, economic and trade ties had not been significant until the recent past. The NRM Government’s recent push for infrastructure development, coupled with a surge in China’s overseas development spending where Uganda has been a key beneficiary, has seen tens of Chinese companies flock into Uganda to tap into the new opportunities presented by Uganda’s resurgent construction and industrial sectors. Today, Chinese companies are heavily invested in the Ugandan economy, from construction and industry to manufacturing and trade.

Speaking at a press conference held at Kampala Serena Hotel on Wednesday, M/s Zhao Xinfen, the economic and commercial counselor at the Chinese embassy in Uganda said that hosting the China-Uganda industrial capacity cooperation exposition is a clear demonstration that the partnership between China and Uganda is moving towards a deeper and higher level.

Martin Muhangi, the Director for investment promotion at Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) said that with the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative – China’s flagship overseas development financing initiative, cooperation between China and Uganda will greatly assist the attainment of Uganda‘s economic development targets, and inject strong momentum in the quest to realize Uganda’s Vision 2040.

The expo comes weeks after President Museveni’s visit to China where he addressed the coordinators meeting for the implementation of the resolutions of the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation summit, signed a host of bilateral treaties between Uganda and China, and opened the first-ever China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, Hunan Province in China.

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Kiryadongo, Uganda: Over 80 cooperators from Kiryadongo district have been tipped on skills development and value addition, as a way of creating and generating wealth.

The training, mainly of members from the Kiryadongo-based Kiigya United Farmers and Kikooba United Cooperative was organized by the Uhuru Institute for Social Development under their Coop360 Network – a platform that brings together primary cooperatives and business Associations to share opportunities for growth.

Addressing the members at Kikooba Parish, Kigumba Sub County in Kiryadongo district, Mr. Leonard Okello, the Chief Executive Officer Uhuru Institute for Social Development urged participants to get organized under cooperatives, and add value to their produce so as to earn more.

“I encourage you to join or form cooperatives. Cooperatives values and principals – their discipline and democratic ownership will fast-track your individual and collective economic growth,” said Okello.

Other facilitators included Dr. Tukahikayo Denis, the Uhuru Institute Business Development and Technical Advisor, Mr. Francis Lulahali, the Network, and Research Assistant, and Mr. Kalyegira Musoke, the Masindi District Commercial Officer.

The Kikooba United Cooperative Board Chairperson, Mr. Byaruhanga Francis hailed the Uhuru Institute for its commitment to training cooperators in Cooperative ethos, saying that the skills they were imparting were transforming lives.

He said the farmers decided to come together to form the Kikooba United Cooperative in 2004, after persistent losses they were incurring at the hands of middlemen.

Started in 2002 as a farmer group with 30 members, it later registered as a multipurpose cooperative on 9th December 2004, and has since grown to 120 members. Now, the cooperative runs a savings and credit scheme, and also provides bulking marketing, and tractor for hire services.

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