President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has asked women ‘to stop using hair of dead people’ while styling their heads.
Worldwide, the dignity of a woman has always observed from the style of the hair one puts on.
In Uganda, hairdressing is among the most booming small scale businesses that most of the women have shown interest in.
Last year, through StateHouse initiatives President Museveni opened up a programme specifically to help and empower the girl child. Among the programmes was hairdressing.
However, on Thursday while was delivering his speech during the launch of Buy Uganda Build Uganda (BUBU) Expo at Kololo Independence grounds, Museveni asked ladies to stop selling imported hair of dead people.
President Museveni said, “I’m worried this hair of dead people from abroad will bring bad luck to many of you. Why don’t Ugandan women start making it here? Use fibres instead of putting on the hair of the dead. I have seen a lady making thread from fibre, I advise you to do the same because our fibre is very strong and you will have a big market because women are many in Uganda.”
Museveni who once castigated Miss World- Africa Quiin Abenakyo for wearing imported hair extensions, also said that Africa’s crisis has been buying but not producing.
He, however, applauded the few Ugandans who are slowly waking up to start producing but he also blamed them of importing raw materials.
“For long, Uganda Dairy Corporation imported powdered milk from Europe, added water from here and labelled it Ugandan milk. This was wrong. As I was touring the exhibitors’ stalls, I met a group of young people from Soroti making shoes but import leather from China. Yet we have cattle here why should you import leather? We must add value to our hides and stop this.”
Museveni added that in the modern world there are two important people; the producer of a good or service and the buyer. The former is the entrepreneur, the thinker, while the latter is important because without them, the business collapse.
“I am happy that now we don’t only produce and process milk in Uganda but we export the surplus to the region. It is the same with coffee and tea. But even as these sectors struggle to bring in much-needed forex, importers erode these gains by importing even what we would produce here,”
According Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija, 60 per cent of the national budget expenditures goes to the procurement of goods and services, it will be much sense if this percentage is reserved for local content.
“Uganda spends about Shs156bn annually on buying drugs from local manufacturers. This is a sign that we have elevated from being consumers/buyers to be producers as well we need just to come up and support the BUBU policy,” said Kasaija.
However, Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Amelia Kyambadde cautioned local manufacturers to produce good quality products and formalize their businesses if they are to benefit from the BUBU Policy.
Over 3,000 local exhibitors have participated in this first-ever BUBU expo.
According to Kyambadde, the expo aims at promoting local content, encouraging and building patriotism in the general public and enhancing networking and coordination around the BUBU policy
“We are doing this to increase the consumption of local products through public procurement and encouraging the Private Sector to consume locally originating products.
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