By Wanambwa M. Rogers

KIU, Main Campus – While addressing journalists at the government-run Uganda Media Centre yesterday, the Minister of Trade and Cooperatives, Amelia Kyambadde, said only 215 industries/factories, especially those producing essential commodities, are still operating. These include pharmaceutical companies that are manufacturing drugs and other factories manufacturing essential commodities such as sugar, sanitisers and masks. 

Kyambadde said that the 4,200 companies that have since shut down could not maintain the workers and other Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that were issued by President and the Ministry of Health requiring the factories to keep staff on site if they were to continue operating during the lockdown. 

“Those companies that shut down failed to encamp their staff at the factory as directed by President Museveni since they had no facilities where their workers could sleep, besides feeding them. Other companies failed to cut the numbers of essential staff to operate critical production,” Ms Kyambadde said. 

On Foreign Trade 

The minister said that the country's foreign trade had plummeted since the start of the lockdown. 

Ms Kyambadde said Uganda’s imports fell from $711.9m (approximately Shs2.7 trillion) in January to US$ 593.7 million (approximately UGX 2.2 trillion) in March, while exports reduced from US$ 383.6 million (UGX 1.4 trillion) in January to US$ 352.9 million (UGX 1.3 trillion) in February.

The minister also revealed a decline in the number of cargo trucks entering and leaving exports by 28% for the inbound cargo and 29% for the outbound cargo. 

On the Rising Price of Salt

The minister let on that Uganda currently does not have the capacity to fully produce its own salt and that we have been importing it from Kenya. However, the price increased from UGX 800 to UGX 5000 and hence the president issued a directive to allow Ugandan companies to increase their salt production. 

“Kampala Salt Limited that has been importing salt is putting up a salt processing plant with a capacity of 192,000 tonnes per year on Jinja Road and are in final stages,” Kyambadde said.

“Herbal Salt Plus Limited is also producing table salt at a capacity of 500 kg per week. If the country has them all producing salt, we shall have enough salt,” she added.

On the bright side for the KIU community and the country at large, the minister added on that prices of many goods that had increased are gradually normalizing and most Ugandans can now afford them unlike at the start of the lockdown.