Presidential Address: Tourism, Coffee, Fish Highlight Country’s Export Boom in State of The Nation Address

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has provided an update on a boom in the Export revenue over the past 12 months.

This was contained in his State of the Nation Address held on Wednesday, 7 at Kololo.

He revealed that Uganda’s export revenue of goods and services was US$ 6.0484 billion for the calendar year ending 2022, of which export of goods merchandise was worth US$ 4.272 billion.

For the 12 months to February, 2023, Museveni revealed that the vountry exported 5.7 million bags each of 50kg of coffee worth US$ 858.7 million, fish was US$ 166.9 million, beans US$132.8 million, sugar US$ 146.8 million, maize US$ 131.2 million and industrial products worth US$ 348.9 million were exported mainly to regional markets.

All this l, he attributes to NRM Government’s efforts to grow and diversify the economy. Export of services was worth US$ 1.776 billion of which tourism was US$ 1.047 billion, equivalent to 59 percent of all the services export receipts.

He said that all this shows the huge untapped potential in the tourism sector that Government is working, in partnership with the private sector, to harness.

Regional integration efforts and promoting intra-Africa trade, are taking root. Uganda now exports more to Africa than to the rest of the world, with 86 percent of our exports (US$3.8 billion) to Africa in the 12 months to February, 2023 and 57 percent (US$2.5 billion) to the six (6) EAC countries.

He underlined the need for the continent to intensify as Africa trade through building regional infrastructure to improve connectivity within the region and reduce trade transaction costs. This way, he said “we shall be able to pull our populations out of poverty much faster because we shall attract more investments.”