Day one of the Uganda-Algeria Trade and Investment Forum & Exhibition kicked off today, Saturday, September 30, 2023, at Hotel Africana with delegates from both countries advocating for value addition and mutual respect for quality requirements. The forum will run throughout the weekend until Monday, October 2, 2023, under the theme; “Harnessing Benefits of AfCTA; Strengthening Bilateral Trade Relations Between Uganda and Algeria”.

The forum is being organized by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives in partnership with the National Chamber of Commerce, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with support from the Uganda Marketers Society.

The Uganda Algeria-Business and Investment Forum aims to unite trade & investment policymakers, key business groups, trade institutions, and regional organizations from both Uganda and Algeria.

Geraldine Ssali, Permanent Secretary-Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives thanked the Algerian government for their cordiality. “Whenever we come to Algeria, we feel at home. I began to say Algeria is a home away from home for me. Thank you so much. We would like you to also feel at home.” she said.

She also expressed willingness to give Algerians free economic zones so that they can enjoy competitive prices from Ugandan producers so they don’t feel the pinch of high costs of production when they come.

“If we work with Algeria, gone will be the days of looking for a funder for our oil because they are self-sufficient in the oil and gas sector.” H.E. Alintuma Nsambu, Ambassador of the Republic of Uganda to Algeria noted.

H.E. Oualid Cherif, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of Algeria to Uganda was pleased that the efforts between the two countries were crowned with the holding of what he referred to as a ‘historical’ forum. “This development comes as a translation of the strong will demonstrated by our two heads of state, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Mr. Yoweri Museveni, to further enhance these relations in the commercial and investment fields. Like Uganda, Algeria advocates for value addition to its raw materials and the diversification of its economy and its earnings by promoting the non-hydrocarbon exports and boosting the local production of goods and services,” he said.  

Mr. Odrek Rwabwogo, Chairman- of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development reiterated H.E. Oualid’s point regarding value addition as this will go a long way to boost trade relations between the two nations.

He also urged Ugandan exporters to be intentional by researching new markets to avoid entering them blindly.  “We need to be very intentional, very deliberate from studying the tastes & preferences of our brothers in Algeria & other markets we want to export to & ensure we know what to supply them in terms of standards, quantities and certification”. PACEID is tasked with growing Uganda’s exports to USD6Bn by 2028.

The President of the National Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Olive Kigongo encouraged Ugandan business people to explore Algeria and discover the opportunities it offers to gain a competitive advantage.

Frank Tumwebaze, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries said, “Opportunities abound in Uganda. We invite you not only to engage in trade with us but also to actively participate in the value-addition process.”

Miss Ndstefai Khaoula from the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency guided Ugandan traders through the company registration process for trading with Algeria, including the duration of the investment period offered to licensees. “The Algerian Investment Promotion Agency is actively engaged in promoting investment, providing information, streamlining registration procedures, and managing the associated benefits.” – she said.

Others present were Dr. Francis Mwebesa- Cabinet Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Hon. Harriet Ntabazi, Amb. Katureebe Tayebwa from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, John Mulimba-State Minister of State for Regional Affairs.

The Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) in conjunction with the Department of Industrial Training (DIT) at the Ministry of Education and Sports, on Saturday, graduated 700 people in the fields of fruit processing, vanilla growing and packing, plumbing and electrification, carpentry and joinery, liquid and bar soap making and mushroom growing. Other services included hair dressing, effluent extraction and treatment, baking technology and application, media and photography. The function which was attended by Patrick Byakatonda, Director General of DIT, Sheikhs Serunjogi and Mohammed Kyazze of Kayunga and Kawempe respectively, Bishop Lwandasa of Mt. Lebanon church in Mukono, took place at Kawempe Muslim Primary School in Kampala.

Presiding over the graduation ceremony which brought together students from Tororo, Amuru, Mbarara, Masaka, Jinja, Kamuli and Kampala districts, Odrek Rwabwogo, Chairman of PACEID, thanked minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni for allowing DIT to skill people who would otherwise be left out of the system yet are very good employees in the export and industry services or being own job makers. “I thank her for recognizing these skills of talented youth who ordinarily feel left out by Ivy League universities and technical colleges that their parents cannot afford”, he said.  He added, “it will take Africa some high-level investment in 25 training institutions of the size of Makerere University annually to be set up and funded for the next 50 years, in order for Africa catch up with the level of industrial and tertiary skills penetration India alone has gained in the last 30 years! How shall we then make it and compete in the world for the 200 million jobs that China is shedding off by 2040 to lower-level manufacturing, if we do not see these soft skills and certify them so they can be recognized globally?” Rwabwogo asked.

Rwabwogo went on, “it is even feels more special to us as PACEID to be graduating these young people to support our effort on aggregation and low-level processing of products for exports like vanilla, avocado, and pineapples from here in Kawempe. This area (Kawempe and Bwaise) along with Kasokoso (Kireka-Banda) along with Mulago and Kamwokya, seem to attract more rural to urban migration than many parts of the city. How will our country make use of this agricultural labour flocking into cities in search of better living conditions yet end up in slums and some in crime? We must be intentional in re-skilling them to do a better job than where they come from?”

He said Africa will be the most urbanizing continent in the world with 500 million Africans living in cities by 2040, according to the latest Mckinsey and company, a global consulting firm, report and Uganda remains one of the highest population growing countries in the world with over 70 percent below 30.

Byakatonda said, “The DIT certificates you receive today are really the ground level qualification to start with. You must put the skills gained here and use this certificate for both finding work or looking to start your own businesses. You however, need to keep training so that you get a higher-level certification”. Referring to Mr. Ahmed Kiggundu of the Glad 18 group based in Bwaise, who graduated in specialized cesspool emptying for crowded parts of the city, Byakatonda added, “we certify services such as National water and sewerage service workers. There is no reason why you as Glad 18, shouldn’t now find work across the country in emerging urban areas”.

Ahmed Kiggundu told the audience, “I had been a stone thrower and a collector of old tyres for burning in the streets during riots and giving hard time to security services until I discovered I could do something, even if it was dirty as emptying toilets, but it gives me legitimate income. Now I am very happy that I have a certificate along with 150 other members of my group.”

PACEID and DIT promised to go across the country and train more youths to support aggregating products for exports and getting better labour services for factories and the service sector in urban areas. President Yoweri Museveni under the state house skilling programme has been giving equipment and machinery for organized groups to improve their skills and trade on the domestic market better.

Sheikh Kyazze, the son of Sheikh Swaibu Semakula the first Mufti of Uganda, who began the school in 1920, asked the Government to prioritize rehabilitation of the school and the mosque as some of the national historical centers for the country’s tourism and education. “I call upon our beloved President Yoweri Museveni whose friend, the late Zubairi Bakari was one of the religious children of Sheikh Swaibu Semakula, to help us complete the portion of the mosque that requires UGX150m” said Sheikh Kyaaze.

The First US-Uganda International Trade Summit and Exhibition 2022, ended yesterday Sunday 18 December 2022 at the Renaissance Hotel Downtown Chicago with a commitment to off-take of several Ugandan products, investment in some of the firms that exhibited, and a promise to help Uganda design an export credit Fund, unique to our level and intensity of trade and export needs.

The grain sector signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an Ohio-based company owned by an indigenous Somali American to buy sim-sim, sorghum, maize, and other raw materials for breakfast cereal grains from Uganda. The Kapeeka-based Namunkekera dried fruits firm got expressions of interest from an African American firm interested in taking stock in the company while the tourism sector got a boost from Mike Patel of Walton International Capital who promised to invest in hotel chains in the game parks in Uganda and also help open up to 6800 hotels for supply of premium Ugandan coffee from companies such as Endiro Coffee and Mountain, the sector exporters and retailers who exhibited in Chicago.

Several other inquiries in the leather sector including a potential order for more than 1000 pairs from Sseko Designs, a fashion firm that exports to the US under the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) were made. The purpose of the three-day trade summit which was opened by President Yoweri Museveni was to introduce key Ugandan products such as coffee, chocolate, banana flour, apparel, beef, vanilla and dairy etc. to American consumers, investors, and retailers, expose Ugandan firms to potential partners and also find new ways to raise funding for the export credit fund for Ugandan exporters to the western market and within the region.

Ugandan companies with support from the African Global Chamber of Commerce (AGCC) led by Dr. Olivier Kamanzi, Uganda’s Trade Representative in Chicago will begin training early next year in standardization, market research, communication, and certification to be able to gain better entry into the US market. The summit which was organized by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) and partly supported by the United Nations Development Program office in Kampala, attracted more than 200 people and 26 Ugandan firms. It was closed by the Uganda Ambassador to the US, Robbie Kakonge.

Odrek  Rwabwogo, Chair of PACEID rallied Ugandans in the Diaspora to come together and start a distribution company for Ugandan products. “There is no way we will sell products here in any sustained way even if we don’t create enough awareness, without a good distribution network that understands Ugandan food products and focuses first on the ethnic markets that understand our foods and later broadly changing the tastes and preferences of many Americans. This is what will help us scale faster as Ugandan firms here” he said.

The summit was attended by Francis Mwebesa- Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Geraldine Ssali, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Trade, Susana Muhwezi, the Presidential Advisor on AGOA, the office of the Governor of Illinois and many Ugandan diasporas and American business community engaged in food processing, off-take, capital and logistics.