Suppliers told to register their companies to benefit from BUBU

The ministry of Trade and Industry has asked suppliers of goods to register their companies for their products to be considered by government procurement processes.

This will enable them benefit from the Buy Uganda Build Uganda Policy that was launched by the ministry of trade recently. The policy promotes the consumption of goods made in Uganda by Ugandans.

The call was made by Joshua Mutambi, Commissioner for Processing and Marketing in the ministry of Trade Industry and cooperatives, in a meeting organized by SEATINI to discuss the impact of climate change on agro processing, at Hotel Africana on Wednesday.

Apart from not registering, Mutambi said suppliers with contracts are not consistent when given an opportunity to supply.

"We have negotiated markets for most of our products but supplies cannot go beyond the second shift as people run pit of the stock," Mutambi said.

SEATINI Country Director Jane Nalunga said for agro processors to benefit from the BUBU policy, they should be assisted on how to produce quality products that can be consumed locally and beyond.

She said Agro processing development has been earmarked as key regional priorities in East Africa but these still face challenges associated with climate change, but these have not been addressed by trade policies in country.

"In the ideal situation, trade policies should ensure the availability of inputs, markets of processed products and access to cleaner technologies while climate change policies should support in coming up with frameworks to work with," said Nalunga.

Joyce Laker a small scale processor said farmers still face a challenge of lack of finance to upgrade so that they can produce products that meet the required standards.