Uganda’s industrial innovation and infrastructure development

UGANDA’S RECENT INDUSTRIAL INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT, A GOOD STEP TOWARDS THE ACHIEVEMENT SDG’S GOAL 9 TARGETS

Birthed from the millennium development goals, all United Nations member countries adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development of which embedded in it was 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and they recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

Centre to our discussion is the Sustainable Development goal9which deals with building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, together with her targets which range from developing quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including regional and Transborder infrastructure, to support economic development and human well-being, with a focus on affordable and equitable access for all, to significantly increase access to information and communications technology and strive to provide universal and affordable access to the Internet in least developed countries by 2020.

Uganda has invested a lot of funds towards infrastructure development on top of acquiring loans. For example Works and Transport took the biggest piece of the pie as the Government continued to expand and transform the infrastructural network for road, railway, air and water in the 2018/19 financial year budget. Government did more to improve environment for investors, a VAT exemption was applied on supplies of construction materials, services, machinery and equipment for developers of industrial parks or free zones, hotels or tourism facilities, hospitals who meet specific criteria. All the above are in line with the development of quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure

An example of which can be the recently opened iconic bridge across the Nile in Jinja. The $112 million cable-stayed bridge was funded by a loan from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. The project itself had almost 800 employees of which for every ten, nine were Ugandans and this helped to develop local content and Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and, by 2030.

 

Infrastructural development continues to be a national developmental priority as indicated by the GoU. The sector continues to be accorded priority due to the multiplier effect it has in stimulating growth and development in Uganda. However the biggest challenge is that very few if any projects are being given to Ugandans to run and question of local content and capacity building is being addressed.

Another issue that raises dust is access of small-scale industrial and other enterprises, to financial services, including affordable credit, and their integration into value chains and markets. The Agricultural Credit Facility (ACF) which was set up by the Government of Uganda (GoU) in partnership with Commercial Banks,

Uganda Development Bank Ltd (UDBL), Micro Deposit Taking Institutions (MDIs) and Credit Institutions all referred to as Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). This has an aim of promoting commercialization of Agriculture through provision of medium and long term financing to projects engaged in agriculture, agro processing, modernization and mechanization with a an interest of 12 percent per annum. 

Despite the fact that the above fund is available, I can highlight that SME’s are facing problems of inadequate collateral to secure loans. On top of that SMEs have alwaysbeen susceptible to information asymmetries information opaqueness. This makes it is difficult for banks to ascertain if SMEs have the capacity to pay or willingness to pay if credit is extended to them.

Igadube ezekiel 
Economic Hub Uganda
P.O Box 1337, Kampala- Uganda | Tel +256779373114/+256703744999 |
 Email:economichubuganda@gmail.com|ezekieligadube@gmail.com