Stitching green fabric: Reimagining Uganda's manufacturing future
Global manufacturing is shifting. Success is now defined by responsible production, not quantity. Sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmental compliance shape markets.
Stitching green fabric: Reimagining Uganda's manufacturing future
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OPINION
By Dr Theodora Twongyirwe Mondo
Many nations celebrate manufacturing months, reminding us that factories are about people, innovation, and advancement as well as equipment and results.
In the US, Manufacturing Day on the first Friday of October kicks off a month of open-door activities where industries show students, educators, and the public current manufacturing.
October carries a similar heartbeat as it has always been a special month for our manufacturing family. Being a long-time Uganda Manufacturers Association (UMA) member makes me proud this month.
This season, our industrial community celebrates initiative, perseverance, and innovation at the 31st Uganda International Trade Fair. Each year, the fair reminds us that manufacturing is a living ecosystem of families, workers, innovators, and entrepreneurs who drive our economy.
This year's theme, “Sustainable Industrialisation for Inclusive Growth, Employment and Wealth Creation,” encourages reflection and regeneration.
It forces us to rethink production, growth, and sharing growth gains. Sustainability is not an academic debate for those of us who grew up on factory floors and know the hum of machinery and the faces behind every product.
Global manufacturing is shifting. Success is now defined by responsible production, not quantity. Sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmental compliance shape markets.
The 2020–2025 Uganda Green Manufacturing Strategy was a crucial step in this change. It promotes cleaner production, resource efficiency, renewable energy, and environmental care.
This greening path has been tough and inspiring for many family businesses like ours. This has driven us to innovate, retrofit systems, and consider legacy over profit.
Green manufacturing offers opportunities, not burdens. Reduces waste, saves energy, and boosts competitiveness in a sustainability-focused global market. It helps Uganda strengthen its industries and preserve the environment for future generations.
Manufacturing is likewise undergoing a major transition due to AI, automation, and robotics. Smarter, more efficient, and data-driven factories are emerging worldwide. Machines can now predict defects, optimise energy use, and manage logistics independently.
Uganda's manufacturing sector faces a difficulty and an opportunity. Automation will revolutionise work as corporations increase productivity and save costs. The next decade will require digital, analytical, and adaptive abilities as well as physical and technical ones.
AI and robotics will change nearly 40% of manufacturing jobs by 2035, according to the World Economic Forum (2023). New possibilities will arise in data analytics, mechatronics, green engineering, supply-chain digitisation, and sustainable process design.
Uganda must prepare its workforce for this transformation by continuing to support technical education, fostering digital literacy, and integrating sustainability into engineering and vocational courses. Future factories will need problem-solvers, inventors, and system thinkers, not operators.
Stitching Green Fabric Policy, finance, technology, and people must be woven into Uganda's green and digital industrial fabric. Policy alignment matters. Our industrial, environmental, and trade strategies must complement.
Funding must support sustainability and technological advancement. Patient capital—concessional loans, tax incentives, and green funds—helps enterprises embrace cleaner and smarter technologies.
Building technical capability and innovation ecosystems requires collaboration between the Ministry of Trade, NEMA, UCPC, and universities.
Finally, we must invest in people as lifelong learners, innovators, and problem-solvers in the green digital economy, not simply as workers. Uganda's industry will reconnect with regional and global markets during the UMA Trade Fair in October. Beyond showing products, we can highlight how Ugandan companies are using sustainability, technology, and human capital to compete.
The world is watching not just what we produce, but how we produce it — and increasingly, who is ready to drive that change.
Celebrate Uganda's manufacturing strength and future readiness this October. Let us construct cleaner, smarter, and inclusive sectors to create jobs, protect the environment, and prepare our youth for tomorrow.
It is time to stitch the green fabric of Uganda’s manufacturing future. We must weave Uganda's green manufacturing future policy by policy, enterprise by enterprise, and innovation by invention.
The writer is an Industrial Engineer and Senior Lecturer at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (www.must.ac.ug). She is passionate about sustainable industrialisation, green manufacturing, and future-ready skills development. Dr Mondo currently serves on the Uganda Development Bank, the Uganda Manufacturers Association and the National Information and Technology Authority. She works to strengthen linkages between academia, policy, and industry to build a cleaner, smarter, and more competitive manufacturing ecosystem in Uganda.
tmtwongyirwe@must.ac.ug