Museveni orders sh310b bailout for tea sector

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President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the Prime Minister and the finance ministry to urgently provide shillings 310 billion to rescue Uganda’s struggling tea sector.

In a statement dated August 26, 2025, addressed to Premier Robinah Nabbanja, Museveni says the money is to be allocated to tea factories, fertiliser subsidies, and unpaid seedling suppliers.

Out of the total package, shillings 152 billion will go to tea factories, 46 billion as a subsidy for fertilisers to tea growers, and shillings 112 billion to settle arrears for seedling suppliers.

“I direct that urgent measures be taken now that we know what the issues are. I was relieved to know that tea is still in demand worldwide, provided the quality of our tea is good,” Museveni says.

The directive follows a meeting the President held with tea growers in Bushenyi town on August 19, 2025, where farmers from different regions highlighted challenges crippling the sector.

Among the issues raised were a lack of fertilisers, poor regulation of leaf quality, the absence of a factory in Zombo, frequent power outages damaging tea in factories, poor feeder roads in tea-growing areas, and unpaid suppliers of seedlings since the NAADS program.

During the same meeting, Museveni also directed Senior presidential advisor Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu to investigate the tea sector and produce a technical report. 

The report is expected to advise the Government on whether tea should be classified as a “high-value” or “low-value” crop and guide long-term policy decisions for the industry.

To assist in the review, Kamuntu named Edson Tumusiime Batuuna, Arthur Babu Muguzi, and Robert Egiku as contributors to the report.

Museveni emphasised that since the tea industry employs over 154,000 Ugandans and earns the country millions of dollars annually, the Government cannot allow it to collapse.

He directed the agriculture ministry to come up with regulations to streamline cultivation, quality control, and marketing.

Tea production in Uganda has grown from three million kilogrammes per year to 60 million kilogrammes annually, generating an estimated $85.5 million for the country.