Local industries must be protected, says President Museveni

Uganda government will continue protecting local manufacturers from unfair competition with their foreign counterparts, says President Yoweri Museveni.

“Protection of local industries must be done. We need to start with the East African countries to promote the local industries by putting taxes on the imported final products and at some stage some intermediate products because all these can be produced here,” President Museveni said on Tuesday.

The President gave the assurance while meeting members of the Presidential CEO Forum at State House Entebbe.

The team led by the Vice Chairman of the Presidential CEO Forum, Emmanuel Katongole sought an audience to brief the President on the achievements registered since the beginning of the forum in 2021.

During the meeting, Museveni emphasised that African countries should transform from raw material-producing economies to industrialization if they are to achieve socio-economic transformation.



He cited the case of the global textile industry worth US $ 800 million, which he said Uganda has been missing because of exporting unprocessed cotton.

“When you hear that all these countries are collapsing because they can’t maintain security, it’s because the economy is not growing because they export raw materials,” President Museveni stated, according to a release from the Presidential Press Unit (PPU).

Museveni therefore, tasked the Presidential CEO Forum to join the government in the fight against corruption, which he said is delaying local investment in Uganda.

“Let’s help ourselves to battle corruption because there are reports of government people asking for bribes from investors. They are delaying investment,” he said.

The President also decried cases of what he termed as fake seedlings being distributed to farmers and vowed to replace the distributors.

“The Operation Wealth Creation people entrusted to distribute the planting material have now become seed growers. We’re going to replace them with institutional agencies like Prisons, and National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) to produce seeds,” Museveni informed the Forum.



He was responding to a report from the Permanent Secretary-Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Ramathan Ggoobi who informed the President about their allocation of sh2.32 trillion to the Parish Development Model.

Ggobi said his office was committed to removing barriers that prevent small businesses from accessing the sh200 billion available for small business recovery fund.

President Museveni further stated that Government is committed to providing cheap electricity and cheap transport as one of the ways to ensure low cost of doing business in Uganda.

“We’re going to build a new 840 megawatts dam in Ayago. We’re also going to build 200 megawatts of solar in Bulambuli at a price of 5 cents per unit,” he said.

Katongole, the Vice Chairman of the Presidential CEO Forum, informed the President that since the first engagement with the CEOs in Kyankwanzi in 2021, a lot of reforms have been implemented to support local businesses to access the new markets.

He reported that 51 joint venture companies and initiatives have been approved under the country’s oil and gas sector and an agreement has been reached with logistics companies and the Uganda Cargo Consolidators Association to facilitate the Intra East African Community trade and insurance.



“There has been sensitization about the existing tax holidays, Fees for product certification have been lowered for products of SMEs and a US Dollar 217 million grant has been processed from the World Bank to support women enterprises in Uganda,” Mr. Katongole said.

Dignitaries at the meeting included ministers Matia Kasaija (Finance, Planning, and Economic Development ) Francis Mwebesa (Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives), Hon. Francis, Ruth Nankabirwa of Energy and Mineral Development plus different CEOs from the public and private sectors.


President Museveni inaugurated the Presidential CEO Forum in 2021 with a call to the business community to adopt import substitution and export promotion if the country is to realise tangible economic progress.

The Forum is a direct link between the private sector leadership, CEOs from Corporate institutions, and government executives with the aim of contributing to the National Development Agenda.