The Ministry of Tourism has said the handcraft and souvenir centre constructed in Masindi will help foster quality in handcraft products by locals.
The production center was constructed at Kicumbanyobo near Murchison Falls National Park in Masindi district and it is fully equipped.
The centre was constructed at a tune of shs200million as part of a $ 1.74 million project funded by Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) .
The project coordinator, Grace Mbabazi Aulo noted that the rationale for building the Kicumbanyobo production center was to make sure it is along the tourism circuit since most the handcrafted products are being consumed by tourists.
She noted that the purpose of this project was to enhance quality production and market access for the most vulnerable societies.
"As you know, most of the handcrafts are produced in our communities, So the purpose of the project was to enhance the handcraft and Souvenir sector in the country so that Uganda is able to have quality products for sale,” Mbabazi said.
She explained said they have already started training handcraft producers to ensure they are able to sell their products online , adding that most of them currently sell their product via the internet.
Mbabazi noted that they carried out capacity building in areas of product designing, quality management system, marketing development and leadership and government.
She hailed Enhanced Integrated Framework for their support throughout the implementation of this project and assured beneficiaries that the government of Uganda through the Ministry of Tourism is coming in full swing to ensure that more production centres are built.
The Ministry of Tourism also engaged beneficiaries of the Handcraft and Souvenir Project(HSDP) to see how the project achieved its objectives and also how it impacted the society.
One of the beneficiaries, Edward Kasango, the CEO of Edekas community training support organisation dealing in woven bags said that the project helped them with the training on how improve the standard and quality of their products.
"The project helped us so much because the level at which we were before the project is not the one we are on after the project. They helped us both financially and now they have given us tools. The project created alot of business opportunities and linked us to so many markets,”Kasango said.
He called upon government to help offer financial and equipment support to them.
"We want machines, because whatever we do, we are doing it manually. whereby if we the government comes in and help us with some machines, we can be lifted higher and higher, and lift our country in the handcraft and Souvenir sector."
Samuel Kakula, the undersecretary from the Ministry of Tourism said the project looked at creating linkages between producers, associations and traders of hand-crafted products.
He added that the project has helped improve the livelihoods for some of the most marginalized communities in Uganda.
"Some enterprises have been certified under ISO 9001: 2015 and world fair trade. Small and medium rnterprise owners were supported to participate in international exhibitions in Dubai, Portugal and Tanzania."
He revealed that the handcraft and souvenir project organised the first ever national handicrafts expo in 2022 and held 12 regional purposive expos in the country.