PSST Ggoobi assures Private sector on Gov’ts readiness to address bottlenecks in Business production

By Evans Najuna

Kampala –The Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Treasury Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Ramathan Ggoobi has assured Private sector business stakeholders on Government’s readiness to address bottlenecks in the production process.

This was revealed on Tuesday last week in a statement read for him by Moses Kaggwa, the Acting Director Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance and Economics Planning, during the Stakeholders’ Workshop for Dissemination of Business Tendency Survey Findings that was held at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala.

According to PSST Ggoobi, commenced by assuring stakeholders saying that generally the perception of doing business has been optimistic over the years, as evidenced by the results of the Business Tendency Index (BTI). Although the index declined from 59.39 in February 2025 to 58.41 in March, 2025, this performance still indicates optimism by the private sector in doing business. He explained that, the confidence is reflected across all sectors assessed with the highest recorded in agriculture (62.13), followed by other services (58.79), wholesale trade (56.77), construction (55.88) and manufacturing (53.72) during the month of March 2025.

Ggoobi noted that Uganda’s entrepreneurial acumen has often been cited. Adding that the average number of start-ups established yearly in Uganda is higher than that of other global comparators. “On average, three in ten Ugandans start a business annually while for the case of Japan only 1 in 10 Japanese start and less than 1 in ten Americans” he stated.

Additionally, the PSST informed stakeholders and the general public that, Government is committed to creating a conducive investment and business climate to further improve this performance.

This will majorly be done through incentivizing Ugandans to participate in income- generating activities to achieve her goal of full monetization of the economy, despite some of the binding constraints to businesses.

He stressed about the firm competitiveness that has often been affected by; high cost and limited access to capital, technology (knowhow and limited R&D), infrastructure (utilities like; electricity and water, ICT transport and logistics, workspaces among), business knowledge and environment (BDS, corporate gouemance; markets; multiple taxes, fees and licenses politics within the CBD; crime rates among others) and high informality.

Concerning how Government has addressed the binding constraints to businesses, the PSST said that government has played it’s facilitating role to promote business growth and development, Interventions to this end have ranged from policy, legal and regulatory reforms to addressing infrastructure and financing gaps to boost private sector growth. These include; Providing affordable financing options: Government of Uganda has availed capital in include Uganda Development Bank, Emyooga, Parish Development Model), Agricultural Credit Facility, Youth Venture Capital Fund, Youth Livelihood Fund, Uganda Women. Entrepreneurship Program, Small Business Recovery Fund, Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW), and Investment for Industrial Transformation and Employment (INVITE) projects.

Government has allocated a total of Shs 2.641 trillion in wealth creation initiatives in FY2024/25. More so the establishment of Incubation centers and Innovation Fund: Supported over 16 Start-up Accelerators & Incubators and established an innovation fund to facilitate innovators and promote R&D.

The PSST also reminded stakeholders that government has created a favorable Business environment like the operationalized the One-Stop-Centre (OSC) for business registration and licensing, reviewed the presumptive tax regime to boost growth and formalization of businesses especially SMEs, provided business development services (BDS) to increase the longevity of firms/businesses through training and skilling.

On market accessibility, he reminded stakeholders that government has deepened penetration into strategic markets such as the EAC, COMESA; AfCFTA; EU; China and India. Uganda benefits from the preferential tariff treatment offered by these markets which guarantees market size of over 5 billion people with combined GDP of over US$44 Trillion. Saying that, this is a great opportunity for businesses to produce and trade. In addition, pointed out how government has decentralized provision of laboratory testing services in partnership TradeMark Africa to enhance trade.

With this support, three regional laboratories in Gulu, Mbale and Mbarara have been established, consequently reducing testing time from 25 days to 14 days and growing traded certified products to 3,554 from 849. He also explained that, Government has formulated policies, laws and regulations to facilitate businesses such as the National Industrial Policy 2020 MSMES: Policy (2015-2025) and it’s Implementation Strategy (2016/17-2020/21); the National Intellectual Property Policy 2019: the Companies Act 2012: Competition Law 2024, and the National Strategy for Private Sector Development (NSPSD) 2022/23-2026/27; and the National BDS Framework, Mining and Minerals Act 2022 and National Payment Systems Act 2020 among others.

He categorically opined Uganda’s infrastructure development, highlighted how Government has invested in requisite soft and hard infrastructure in order to reduce production costs. “Resources have been earmarked during this Financial year towards maintenance of all roads, construction of few strategic roads, rehabilitation of the Meter Gauge Railway and construction of the Standard Gauge Railway,” he said. Over the past decades trade facilitation infrastructure have been established to promote trade across borders.

Giving some examples like; the electronic single window that has reduced clearance time by 79% since 2014, and halved the cost of certification. Currently, time taken to clear goods from Mombasa port to Uganda has substantially reduced from 1-2 weeks to about 4 days.

In addition to interventions including; the Zonal Industrial Hubs that have been established across the country, construction of Industrial Parks and Free Zones as well as One Stop Border Posts among others. The PSST noted the promotion of local content which has continued to incentivize local firms through provision of fiscal and non-tax incentives such as land and tax exemption to facilitate establishment. Furthermore, Ugandan firms have been awarded contracts in the oil and gas sector on the National Oil and Gas Talent Register also grew to 8,856 by December 2023.

Ggoobi further clarified the Oportunities and Outlook of NDP IV that will not only implement Government’s Ten fold Growth Suraligy by expanding the economy iron 350 billion in FY 2022/23 to 500 billions in the next 15 years, but also Businesnes should position themselves to benefit from the sectors that will drive this growth. Explaining the primary sectors being the ATMS: Agro-Industrialisstion, Tourism development, Mineral-based industrialization, including Oil & gas, and Science Technology and Innovation, including ICT and the Creatives Industry

The PSST, also informed stakeholders that the size of the economy is projected to double in the next 5 years. Adding that the private sector accounts for a large share of Uganda’s GDP (80%). “The increase in GDP signifies high demand for intermediate goods and service between businesses, particularly manufactures, industrial housing, industrial warehousing, data & ICT services, hotel & hospitality, tour & travel, private security services, accounting, insurance & banking, transport & logistics, and media & communication” he explained. An increase in GDP implies a matching increase in the size of Government contracts given that over 60% of the National budget is spent through procurement in the areas of utility services (energy & water); infrastructure contracts (transport, energy, water, and ICT) and supplies.

According to the PSST, the high growth trajectory of the real estate sector presents immense opportunities for the private sector. Noting the housing burden is on the rise also continues to intensify with the increase in population and urbanization. And the share of urban population to total population was reported at 26.8 percent in 2023 (World Bank). Citing that annual average residential property inflation increased to 4.6 percent in 2024 from 0.1 percent registered in 2023 due to the rise in prices of properties in urban centres. Uganda’s economy has evolved and her product space in the export market is gaining traction. In 1995, the top five exports were: coffee (75.6%), followed by gold (4.6%), fish and its products (4.3%), tobacco (1.7%) and hides and skins (1.6%).

This explains that by 2023 Uganda’a export basket had significantly diversified with coffee’s production contributing a significant unit to pave way for other products in the last 15 years (2008-2023). Whereas 31 new products immerged consisting of mainly manufactured goods. These include unglizert ceramic flags and pavers, sheets for veneering for plywood, solid soybean residues, other manufactured tobacco, fiberboard of wood, butter, casein, gelatin, hair products, paper labcis, soybean oil, zinc powder, sulfonitric acids.

This momentum needs to be maintained and increased to meet the target of increasing the share of manufactured goods in total exports to 50%-. But also in the 12 months to February, 2025, Uganda’s top five merchandise export earners were; gold (40.5%); coffee (18.8%), cocoa beans (4.2) base-metals and products (2.8%) and sugar (2.0%). The treatment of dairy products and service exports by Bank of Uganda needs to be addressed for this list to be more comprehensive.

Conclusively, the PSST recommended Bank of Uganda for their steadfast leadership in conducting and publishing the Business Tendency Surveys over the past decades also extend my appreciation to all stakeholders who have been instrumental in the production of these surveys and all participants who are present today to witness this exercise and have provided invaluable input. He however, notified stakeholders that Uganda’s growth is promising and we have a huge potential to diversify into new and more complex products.

Uganda’s major merchandise exports are in agriculture and stone hence there is need to diversify “knowhow” to produce wider and more complex goods and services to drive export growth. Government is dedicated to facilitate the business community by increasing stock of quality infrastructure (roads, electricity), and addressing all the challenges to enhance competitiveness