Permanent Secretary Vincent Bagiire Waiswa issued the instruction during the opening of a four-day diplomatic retreat in Kampala.
The meeting brought together officials from the foreign ministry, heads of Uganda's missions abroad, several line ministries, and the Uganda Investment Authority to assess three years of performance under the Economic and Commercial Diplomacy strategy.
The review, held at the Mestil Hotel under the theme of strengthening institutional collaboration, represents the most detailed public accounting yet of what Ugandan embassies have delivered and where execution has fallen short.
Organised by the Department of Regional Economic Cooperation, the retreat aims to resolve bottlenecks among agencies handling the core strategy pillars of agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and services to better support local private sector producers and exporters.
Bagiire told delegates that while the strategy framework remains sound, the methodology of measuring success must change.
He noted that the government can no longer count events or meetings as achievements, instructing heads of missions to move toward outcome-based reporting backed by solid statistics and documentation.
To streamline this process, the ministry has established an Economic and Commercial Diplomacy Operations Hub. The automated system is designed to coordinate communication between overseas missions, the Kampala headquarters, and various domestic departments. Bagiire also pressed diplomats to sharpen their annual work plans and work with the public diplomacy department to market Ugandan opportunities more aggressively, linking the targets to Uganda's long-term Vision 2040 and plans for a tenfold economic expansion.
Ambassador Richard Kabonero, head of the department overseeing the strategy, described the past year as the department's most productive but noted the retreat offers a critical opportunity to adjust operations before the 2026/27 financial year.
Data presented at the retreat highlighted the scale of Uganda's trade challenges. Uganda's mission in South Sudan presented economic metrics showing Uganda ranks third in output within the eight-member East African Community, trailing Kenya's $147 billion economy and Tanzania's $95 billion, and sitting just behind the Democratic Republic of Congo. The combined bloc represents a $435 billion economy with 355 million people.
The South Sudan mission identified a persistent deficit between what Ugandan public institutions promise investors and what the domestic private sector can actually supply. This coordination gap, along with specific logistical constraints within South Sudan, has prevented Uganda from converting its regional political standing into higher trade volumes.
Conversely, Uganda's mission in Switzerland offered a detailed look at high-value commercial diplomacy. Deputy Permanent Representative Arthur Kafeero, who oversees the Geneva post with dual accreditation to Switzerland and more than 40 international organisations like the World Trade Organization, detailed initiatives centered on luxury tourism, agro-industrial trade, sport-linked marketing, and multilateral advocacy.
The Geneva tourism strategy targets Switzerland's high concentration of wealth. Geneva itself has 16 billionaires and roughly 90,000 millionaires, while Zurich counts 12 billionaires and 99,300 millionaires. Swiss residents spent approximately 19.3 billion francs, or $24 billion, on foreign travel last year.
The mission argues that capturing even a small fraction of this market through high-end safari packages valued between $50,000 and $250,000 per trip would significantly boost Uganda's tourism earnings. Staff reported that travel agents have already secured multi-week bookings to Uganda and Rwanda for this year and are booking repeat clients into 2027.
To expand visibility, the mission is exploring advertisements on Swiss public transport systems, which serve six million daily commuters, and Swiss ice hockey broadcasts, which pull seven million viewers.
However, diplomats noted that the lack of a direct flight remains a primary bottleneck. Uganda drew only 107 Swiss visitors in 2024, and commercial airlines typically require a consistent threshold of 550 one-way passengers per week for at least four months to justify a new route, a goal the mission suggests could be achieved by pooling passenger demand with Kenya or Tanzania.
On agricultural trade, the Geneva mission highlighted Switzerland's role as a global hub for coffee trading. The country hosts Sucafina, whose local subsidiary UGACOF is Uganda's largest coffee exporter, and Nestlé, the largest food and beverage corporation globally.
Diplomats plan to utilize upcoming coffee trade events in Brussels and a Swiss coffee traders' forum to expand these market linkages.
The mission is also collaborating with the Ministry of Finance and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development regarding Uganda's graduation from Least Developed Country status. Uganda met the eligibility criteria in March 2024, with a national validation workshop set for August and formal graduation projected between 2030 and 2032, a shift officials say will improve international investor confidence and financing terms.
Separately, the mission is working with the International Trade Centre on programmes to help Ugandan exporters meet European Union market standards for avocados, cocoa, coffee, spices, and tea, alongside skills training initiatives for young women in creative industries.
A more challenging trade outlook was presented by Uganda's mission in Abuja. While Nigeria's economy stands at $334 billion with a population of 236 million anchoring a wider West African market of 442 million people, Ugandan exports to the country total just $34.6 million.
These exports consist primarily of tobacco at $17.2 million and pharmaceutical products, mostly antimalarials and antiretrovirals manufactured by Quality Chemicals, at $11 million, alongside smaller quantities of coffee, hides, powdered milk, palm oil, and fish.
Dr Omara Sam presented the Abuja mission's findings, attributing the low trade volumes to long shipping distances, currency restrictions, foreign ownership caps, capital controls, and import quotas. He also cited delays in rolling out a 2025 Nigeria–East and Southern Africa air cargo route and reliability issues with Uganda Airlines services, alongside supply-side deficits within Uganda.
The mission recommended leveraging African Continental Free Trade Area commitments, negotiating bilateral trade terms, utilizing free trade zones and bonded warehouses, and expanding reciprocal trade missions, noting that Nigeria's deployment of its first domestic cargo vessel could eventually reduce shipping costs between West and East Africa.
The investment side of the economic strategy was outlined by the Uganda Investment Authority, which markets Uganda as a liberalised economy with no restrictions on foreign ownership or profit repatriation.
The authority projects Uganda as the fastest-growing economy in the East African Community, with a GDP exceeding $40 billion, offering duty-free access to regional markets and trade agreements with the European Union and the United States.
The authority's current project pipeline includes $7 billion in proposed mining and mineral processing for gold, tin, lithium, and rare earths, and $5.1 billion for hydropower infrastructure at Kiba, Ayago, and Oriang. It also references a proposed $30 billion, 8,400-megawatt nuclear plant in Buyende and $1.4 billion for electricity grid expansion.
Planned transport infrastructure includes a $1 billion light rail system for greater Kampala and a $424 million bus rapid transit project, alongside smaller agro-processing proposals like a $60 million instant coffee plant, a $97 million fruit factory, and a $58 million cotton mill.
According to the authority, its one-stop business center has allocated land to 514 companies across national industrial parks. Of these, 199 factories are currently operational, employing over 100,000 people and representing nearly $3 billion in capital investment, though parks planned for Karamoja and the Koboko-Oraba border zone remain in early feasibility stages.
The initial day of the retreat concluded with a closed session where heads of missions discussed operational frustrations and institutional barriers. The remaining sessions will focus on how domestic ministries view their roles in trade promotion, investment facilitation, and market intelligence, alongside broader capacity-building coordination ahead of the upcoming financial year.