Archive for month: August, 2020

Construction of the multi-billion Okuti International border market in Kitgum district has failed to take off due to lack of an access road to the area.

Okuti is one of six markets identified by government in the year 2011 to be upgraded into international border markets. Others are Elegu in Amuru, Katuna in Kabale, Mutukula in Rakai, Malaba in Busia and Bwera in Kasese.

However, works on the market are proceeding at a snail’s pace as there is no major road connecting to the site.

The vice Chairperson LC V, Kitgum district, Billy Graham Odongkara, told theCooperator that the district is still struggling to ensure that a road that connects to Okuti is opened.

Odongkara says they had hoped that the market project would be up and running six months after it was launched in 2015, but very little has been done to date.

“We opened a small portion of the road under the NUSAF [Northern Uganda Social Action Fund] project, but a bigger portion of the road still remains unfinished. More money is needed to complete it,” Odongkara said.

He said the district would have opened the road if local revenue collections did not consistently fall below their projections.

“Last financial year, we projected to raise Shs 350 million but we got less than 200 million; so we need help to open this road,” Odongkara said.

On a related note, application for plots of land at the market site by members of the business community started in 2016 and has not been completed since.

Mathew Otto, the Kitgum District Land Officer, told theCooperator that already 60,000 local investors have applied for plots in the market area that has a capacity of 100,000 plots.

Background

In 2014, 17 clans in the project area offered land measuring 269, 482 hectares for the construction of the market. The district subsequently acquired a land title for 109, 005 hectares of the land for the construction of the international border market by the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives.

The proposed development of a modern market at the Uganda-South Sudan border was birthed by the Common Market for East and Southern African (COMESA) policy to promote regional trade.

Expected benefits of the market

Otto says that the market will help resolve some of the challenges that Uganda faces as a landlocked country and open its borders to the greater horn of Africa which comprises of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, in addition to serving all the six East African Countries, with a total estimated population of 520 million.

The immediate benefit of the market to the district, Otto says, is that the plots will be leased out for 49 years at a rate of Shs 4m per plot, raising at least Shs 52 bn shillings from lease titles.

Besides, it is projected that the district will earn revenue from satellite businesses surrounding the border market in daily, monthly and annual fees, depending on the business.

“Okuti linkage is the best in terms of distance, terrain and strategic location. This means even a person who roasts maize in Namukora sub county in Kitgum district will sell all their maize by the end of the day, because there will be so many people from many countries trading there,” Otto said.

More benefits are expected to come in form of royalties from graphite in the sub county. In 2014, Discovery Africa Ltd, a private exploration company, said it had found graphite grades of up to 25.3% in Orom Hill in Locomo village, Akurumor parish, Orom sub county.

Graphite is a high-quality commercial mineral used for making pencils, electronic rods and batteries, among others.

The post Lack of access road delays works on proposed Okuti border market appeared first on The Cooperator News.

Corti Paul Lakuma, a Policy Analyst and Researcher with Makerere based Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) has expressed faith that Uganda’s economy is beginning to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, months after government started easing a nationwide lockdown.

In an interview with theCooperator, Lakuma recalled that a May 2020 survey conducted by the research body found that Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) were drastically affected by the pandemic and subsequent containment policies.

However, the researcher argues that businesses are now beginning to recover from the economic downturn.

“From my experience as an economist, I can say that the economy is starting to recover, although not at the desired speed. Businesses are doing better than they were two or three months ago,” Lakuma observed, although he was quick to add that this judgement is based on intuition rather than hard evidence.

“We (EP RC) are now conducting a post-lockdown survey to provide empirical evidence on the
current state of SMEs in the country,” he said.

In a statement issued last week, the Central Bank revealed that economic activity in Uganda was beginning to pick up.

“Economic activity grew by 5.7% month-on-month in June, indicating pickup for our economy, relative to the contraction registered three months towards May 2020,” Prof. Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, the Governor Bank of Uganda (BoU) noted.

“The purchasing index also continued to register improvements since May 2020, and slightly crossed the 50 mark, indicating improvements in the business environment,” he added. COVID-19 disrupted both demand and supply of goods and services in the economy.

Mutebile said that whereas supply will initially recover with easing of the economy, demand can only gradually improve with increased export and domestic confidence to spend.

The subdued local confidence to spend is being orchestrated by months of lost incomes, during extended lockdown periods, and looming anxiety over another potential total lockdown, in case community cases skyrocket. Currently, Uganda has registered 15 COVID-19 deaths.

“The economic outlook is extremely uncertain, largely because of the unpredictable spread of COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing Non-Performing loans and high lending interest rates could delay the recovery of private sector credit extensions to pre-COVID levels,” Mutebile argued.

He also communicated that the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting of August 2020 maintained the Central Bank Rate at 7% and expressed BoU’s commitment to provide liquidity support to Supervised Financial Institutions (SFIs).

This is one of the moves intended to accelerate economic growth, projected to be in the 3-4% range for FY 2020/21.
On a related note,, amidst outcry for government support to distressed businesses, the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) on August 10, 2020 called for SMEs engaged in primary agriculture, agro industrialization and manufacturing to apply for credit financing, under government’s COVID-19 stimulus package.

The stimulus package is part of over Shs 1 trillion that government, this Financial Year, sunk into UDB to support economic recovery through production of essential goods and services, import substitution and export promotion.

According to the call by UDB, the credit facility will offer businesses a minimum of Shs 100 million at 12% interest rate. However, actors in the SME sector have warned that UDB only offers credit financing to long-term development projects, rendering it unsuitable to meet the immediate short-term liquidity relief businesses need to recover.

Experts like Lakuma also argue that Uganda’s private sector is largely informal, yet financial institutions such as UDB require formality, which creates inequity in distribution of relief financing under government’s stimulus package.

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Absence of regulation to guide the promotion of good quality seed has long afflicted the agricultural sector, a loophole that some seed companies have in the past exploited to supply fake seeds to farmers.

In response to this challenge, the 2018 National Seed Policy was drafted to encourage increased use of improved varieties of domestic, regional and international markets. The policy aimed at fostering development of a vibrant seed sub sector in Uganda.

It is against this background that MAAIF, in partnership with The Integrated Seed Sector Development programme in Uganda (ISSD), organised regional dissemination meetings to sensitise the District Agricultural Officers (DAOs) and farmer representatives about the implementation of the policy.

The meeting was held at the Kabarole district headquarters and was attended by all District Agricultural Officers (DAOs) and farmer representatives from the nine districts of Rwenzori sub region.

According to Consolata Acayo, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Information and Communication from the Directorate of Agricultural extension in the Ministry of Agriculture, good quality seed is the foundation of agriculture and solves 60 percent of agricultural problems.

“We need our farmers to know the importance of good quality seed. Many farmers are used to keeping seed from the previous harvest, resulting in poor production,” she said, adding that the dissemination meetings would help stakeholders who are supposed to implement the seed policy.

Dr. Bony Ntare, the seed system and policy consultant with ISSD Uganda said the Seed Policy will be the foundation for the development of Uganda’s agricultural sector and ensure quality assurance for the seed sector.

He advised farmers to buy from only certified companies to avoid fake seed which, he said, affects productivity.

“All seed companies in the country should be regulated for the good of the agriculture sector,” he said.

Moses Erongu, the Senior Seed Inspector, MAAIF, said farmers’ reliance on home-saved seed is the result of a lack of trust in the certified seed available on the market.

Nelson Masereka, the Executive Secretary, Uganda Seed Trade Association, welcomed the intervention, saying that the absence of a regulatory framework has been one of the main challenges facing the sector.

The Uganda Seed Trade Association is an umbrella for seed companies in Uganda and is licensed by the Ministry of Agriculture to produce and market seed.

“Farmers have got a lot of information that has confused them and sometimes they don’t know where to go. For example they have been getting seeds from OWC and they have been blaming our companies over fake seeds,” he said.

Masereka called upon government to help farmers procure quality hybrid seed.

Bangirana Costance a member of Kamwenge Farmers Tukorere Hamwe in Kamwenge district said they multiply bean seeds with the help of National Research Organization (NARO). She said this has helped them avoid fake seeds.

“Some of our farmers don’t buy seeds from our group; they go to shops and end up buying fake seeds which are not certified and end up getting poor yields,” she said.

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