OPINION: RAPEX is Uganda’s Lehman Brothers moment - the case for UCDA

By Andrew Besi

It began, we are told, with the arrival on our shores of a European lady called Enrica Pinetti. Her dream – to build a first class Specialised Hospital at Lubowa on Entebbe Road. Apparently she had noticed that some elite Ugandans were traveling to Europe, India and America to treat their Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Cancers and even Fatigue. A select few, distrustful of Ugandan doctors and hospital staff, travelled abroad to welcome their new born.
Always the pragmatist, Pres. Museveni opened up our meager state wallet and in the years since 2019, nearly US$133.6m (approximately Ugx 476.5bn) has been wasted on ISHU. I say wasted because there is no visible progress at Lubowa.
It is this same Ms. Pinetti with “no idea about coffee” who was asked, on account of her “wide contacts” by President Museveni, to “look into coffee.” Responding to widespread public backlash against his proposed deal with Ms. Pinetti’s proposed Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited, President Museveni mused: “Those attacking that project are supporters of perpetual bleeding of Africa. If they were not, they would have responded to our call to add value to coffee and seek government assistance. I am ready to sit down with all coffee people. If you want to add value I will support you.”
Was he unaware of the increasing local and foreign coffee processors in Uganda? Processors such as Bukhonzo Joint Cooperative Union who as of May 2023 constituted 1,465 farmer members drawn from 3 primary cooperatives with 11 washing stations, and who in conjunction with Atlas coffee, produce some of the best coffee under the Rwenzori Coffee brand?Was he unaware of strides taken by Investors such as Cafe Pap which since 2003 has ethically
sourced, from women groups, and roasted the highest quality Arabica from Mt. Elgon’s Bulago
area?
Was he unaware of Wealth Creators such as Agri-Evolve that presently works with nearly
15,000 smallholder coffee farmers? Let me not get started on other wealth creators such as
Rugyeyo Coffee, Jada Coffee, Endiro Coffee and many others!
It was entities such as these who together with Uganda Coffee Development Authority worked
with coffee farmers to increase yields,quality and ultimately price of coffee beans. It was
entities such as these; and here I pay tribute to individuals such as Mr. Steven Banya of Ban
Cafe; Mr. Andrew Rugasira of Good African Coffee and the late Mrs.Jolly Ngabirano, who
introduced Uganda’s young urbanites to the idea that Coffee was a beverage worthy of our
consumption. I do remember one Sunday afternoon in 2005 President Museveni’s convoy
pulled up in front of a recently opened Cafe on Buganda Road called 1,000 cups. It was a joyful
sight for us to see our President order for, pay and drink the same coffee that we did.
How then did we get to calling Uganda Coffee Development Authority a ‘Parasitic Agency’?
Sometime in 2017 as the clock wound down on Operation Wealth Creation, a group of
Economists gathered outside Kampala and began analysing and discussing the economic
ramifications of different State Agencies. At the time, government expenditure accounted for
nearly 18% of GDP. They zeroed in on Uganda National Roads Authority(UNRA), Uganda Coffee
Development Authority(UCDA), National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) and
eighteen others as those due for Rationalisation (RAPEX).

I have no kind words for the immediate past leadership of NITA-U and all of the other 18
agencies. In my view, NITA-U and these agencies were a continuum of the inefficiencies and
contradictions of our civil service. I will show you a sliver or two: I was approaching my second
to last year at Primary school when a Japanese Company called Marubeni was contracted to lay
fiber-optic cables in Uganda. Thirty two years later, in an era of satellite transmissions, NITA-
U is still obsessed with fiber! In July 2019, NITA-U had President Museveni commission what
was supposedly a Tier III Data Centre in Jinja. I say ‘supposedly’ because I know that a Tier III
Data centre cannot be built on a site fit enough for a basic two bedroom house.
However, Uganda Coffee Development Authority, as pointed out by Dr. Ezra Suruma – in spite
of their error in advocating for a 1% increase in the cess allocated to them, at its creation in
1990 was tasked with working with farmers and entrepreneurs to improve the “quality of
coffee along the entire value chain.” To do this, they had to “support research and
development, promote production, and improve the marketing of coffee in order to optmise
earnings for coffee stakeholders and the country.”
“The Authority,” Hon. Frank Tumwebaze admitted, “stepped up efforts to develop and
promote coffee through research,domestic consumption and quality control to ensure that all coffee produced meets the required standards.”
I have noticed,with a twist of irony, that it is only in Ministry boardrooms (including at the many and often unnecessary seminars/workshops) and in Parliament Committee meetings that Nescafe is served. Not once have I seen any of the increasing high quality Ugandan Processed Coffees served at these meetings. Proper parasites! It is possible that ‘the Economists’ who offered the opinion that UCDA like UNRA should be Rationalised, probably did so while drinking Nescafe Gold as opposed to The Platia’s famous Single Lattes!!
Indeed, because of these ‘Economists’, who are probably angling to be the next Permanent Secretaries in any of our not so convincing Ministries, or perhaps even take on the mantle of Governor of our Central Bank, that we now have a spiraling “coffee factory” being built in Ntungamo’s Kajara County. Like the hospital at Lubowa, many fear that this factory, in an area not known to grow substantial volumes of coffee -1566 Km away from Mombasa and 367 km away from Entebbe International Airport is yet another white elephant.
Conclusion: The World Bank predicts that over the next 7 years, the ratio of Government Expenditure to GDP will average about 20% p.a. One reason for this figure, as correctly pointed out by many thought leaders, is on account of an expanded and extravagant legislature, as well as the always enlarging Cabinet and sub cabinet strata such as Advisors and district functionaries (RDCs, DRDCs, Asst RDCs etc).
A recent report by the Inspectorate of Government concluded that each year, Ugx 10tr (nearly 10% of GDP) is STOLEN by traitors in the Civil Service working with saboteurs on House Committees and favored private sector players. RAPEX will never work unless President Museveni folds his sleeves, reforms and modernises his civil service and takes on corruption. This is the only way RAPEX does not become our Lehman Brothers moment.

The writer is a victim of Corruption at the hands of a Permanent Secretary and was once an optimistic Ugandan.

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