Despite the fact that East African countries opened up their borders under the East African common market protocol, Ugandans traders have failed to favorably compete with the other countries.
Allan Katwalo says it’s time for Ugandans to divert their focus from issues of taxes and lack of capital to rather find solutions on how they can become competitive and become market leaders.
Ugandan business operators have years attributed their failure to get a footing in the regional, market on the high cost of doing business, lack of market and capital and other things.
But according to Allan Katwalo a business management professor, there are fundamental issues that are being over looked.
“The way Ugandans are conducting their business is wrong but at the end of the day the blame government. They even fail on the small basics of customer care “Allan Katwalo says.
Katwalo says that businesses are inefficient in their work and can’t sustain good quality to compete in the market. Kenyan consumers for example shun Ugandan made products citing quality issues, yet Ugandans also opt for Kenya products.
He believes businesses can earn more from the little they produce if they work towards improving the quality.
“Even the things Ugandans are exporting they aren’t exporting them competitively and problems are with quality and they aren’t reliable when it comes to delivering on time.”
This was during the 2nd small and medium enterprises round table discussion organized by Standard Charted bank aimed at sharing knowledge with the business community on how best to penetrate the market space and understand the financial needs.
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