President Museveni has said the current Coronavirus pandemic has presented a rare opportunity for Africa to industrialize as one of the ways to move to the middle income status.
Museveni made the remarks on Tuesday as he commissioned two facemask production lines at LIDA Packaging Limited in Mbalala Industrial Park in Mukono district.
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“… this factory is responding to our call to build local capacity through investing in Uganda and helping in the Coronavirus war,”Museveni said.
According to Museveni, it is during such times that the continent should ditch what he termed as excessive importation to replace with local manufacturing.
The president explained that Uganda has enough raw materials to feed industries for production of commodities rather than continue relying heavily on imports, which he said are unsettling the economy, especially during crises like the Coronavirus pandemic.
““We have the capacity to produce many things here because most of the raw materials are here. People in the west have bananas (embide) we can use to produce alcohol. This same alcohol that has been killing you is the same we are using to produce the sanitizer which is now helping us fight Coronavirus. So from killing you, alcohol is now being used to saving you. This is the kind of production we can enhance,”Museveni said.
“I appeal to local businessmen to use this opportunity to borrow this money from Uganda Development Bank and set up more plants to produce more here. This money is yours. Government will protect local producers by imposing a heavy tax levy on similar products that are imported into the Ugandan market.”
The president said government had put a portion on the shs1.9 trillion borrowed from the International Monetary Fund to support the manufacturing sector as the country moves to balance its trade payments.
The State Minister for Investment and Privatization, Evelyn Anite, the minister for investment and privatization commended the president for supporting Ugandan businessmen through UDB.
She noted that Uganda’s production level in masks has ensured export of 50,000 masks to neighboring Kenya, urging for more production internally.
LIDA Packaging Company chairman Li Shiqing requested government to ensure protection of local manufacturers under the Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy by imposing import duty.
The company has a production capacity of 560,000 facemasks per day and employs 315 Ugandans.
The Chinese company also specializes in non-woven fabrics, plastic packaging products, woven bags and other packaging products.
