The Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) has successfully grown its portfolio from a single investment to 22 in just six years, establishing itself as a key driver of the nation's industrial agenda. Speaking on the inaugural "Spotlight UG" high-level dialogue on NBS TV on Monday, 20th October, UDC Executive Director Dr. Patrick Birungi provided a detailed look at the corporation’s achievements and its ambitious "plug and play" strategy for the future.
The Spotlight dialogue, themed "Advancing Trade and Industrial Growth for Uganda’s Transformation," provided a platform for government agencies to showcase their milestones. Host Mildred Tuhaise pressed Dr. Birungi on how UDC ensures accountability and measures the real-world impact of its vast investments.
Dr. Birungi explained that while UDC employs standard monitoring and evaluation systems, the true measure of impact is access to these basic needs. He pointed to tangible, transformative successes, such as the fulfillment of the President's COVID-19-era promise to produce PPEs locally. "It felt like a dream," Dr. Birungi recalled, "Mildred, we produce those gloves here in Uganda. Currently, we are supplying about 60% of the NMS and GMS markets."
He also highlighted UDC's role in stabilizing the tea industry, which supports two million beneficiaries, and noted that UDC's interventions help saturate local communities with "a total of about 20 billion" for raw materials.
Looking forward, Dr. Birungi revealed that UDC’s primary strategy is to accelerate industrialization by establishing "plug and play" industrial zones. "The biggest challenge is when the industrials come and they have to establish from the concrete," he explained. UDC plans to provide the basic infrastructure, allowing the private sector to simply "come in with the machinery, they plug, and they start producing."
This strategy is already being rolled out across several key value chains, including a new packaging facility in Namave, enhanced cotton and textile value addition, cocoa processing, and sugar processing in Amuru. Dr. Birungi also identified animal vaccines and the creation of an SME fund as "game-changer" interventions that will define UDC’s next five years. You can watch this Spotlight edition on the AfroMobile App.
https://x.com/nbstv/status/1980624021784777017.