The minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Amelia Kyambadde has called on Ugandans to start embracing the idea of becoming industrialists.
The outgoing Mawokota south Member of Parliament made the plea while giving her keynote address during the launch of the National Industrial Policy 2020 at Serena Hotel on Tuesday. She said Ugandans and Africans at large must demystify the elements that industrialists must only be foreigners.
“When we talk about industrialization, most people think that it’s only foreigners to come here and industrialize us which is a very bad mentality. Every Ugandan has the potential to industrialize. The farmer who is in the village has the potential to become an industrialist but in most cases, we wait for investors to come. This is the time to wake up, even Ugandans can become investors in their country, they only need to wake up,” she said.
Uganda’s industrial sector is comprised of manufacturing, construction, mining and utilities. The sector has grown significantly since 1986 with the Industry contribution to Gross Domestic Product raised from 11 percent in 1989/90 to 27.1 percent in 2018/19.
Manufacturing is currently the largest component of the industry sector, contributing 57.2 percent of the industrial sector output in 2018/19. The number of manufacturing enterprises has also grown from about 83 enterprises in 1986 to 5200 enterprises as of June 2020.
According to Kyambadde, globally, industrialization has been used as an engine for development through the production and consumption of high-value-added products and services.
“If most Ugandans embrace the idea of industrialization, poverty eradication policies would be easy since industries create employment.”
According to World Bank statistics of 2018, the contribution of industry to world production was 25.4 percent and the manufacturing value added (MVA) as a percentage of GDP was 15.4 percent. The share of manufactured products to total merchandise exports globally stood at approximately 22 percent.
“Because most of Uganda’s rich people have shunned industrialization, most of the industries we have are owned by foreigners who repatriate most of their profits yet our rich people are seriously building arcades everywhere which are currently empty since no tenants can afford them,” she said.
Kyambadde added that since the government has already formulated an industry policy, Ugandans should take this chance and industrialize.
“The goal of the National Industrial Policy 2020 is to double the manufacturing value-added as a percentage of GDP from the 8.3 percent in 2018.19 to 16 percent in 2029/30 and increase industry sector contribution to GDP from 27.1 2018/19 to 31.7 percent in the next ten years,” she noted.
The Policy is expected to address the challenges being faced by the sector such as Lowering the cost of manufacturing especially concerning energy and transport. Increasing the range of value-added competitive products to create more employment and address the trade imbalance by enhancing import substitution. Widening the industrial base and improving integration with agriculture, mineral exploitation and other domestic natural resources.
Kyambadde asserted if the policy is successfully implemented, it will double the manufacturing value-added as a percentage of GDP from 8.3 percent in 2018/19 to 16 percent in 2029/30 and increase industry sector contribution to GDP from 27.1 percent 2018/19 to 31.7 percent in the next ten years.
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