The Government will use crafts as an avenue to promote tourism and increase the incomes of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Hillary Musoke, the Private Secretary to President Yoweri Museveni in charge of the youth has said.

He asked SMEs to seek government funding to increase handcraft production to meet the demand on the local and international markets.

Harriet Mutabazi, the state minister for trade signing in a vistors group for one of the stalls on display. (Photo by Wilfred Sanya)

Musoke made the remarks during an exhibition organised by the Federation of Small Medium Enterprises (FSMEs) in Kampala recently.

“We have observed there is opportunity in handcrafts that has not been exploited by people for a long time. I would like players in this area to take up this opportunity because funding is available," Musoke said.

Musoke added that many tourists buy crafts as souvenirs after visiting the Pearl of Africa.

Varities of crafts on display during the exhibition week at UMA show grounds. (Photo by Wilfred Sanya)

Accessing gov’t funds

He explained that in order to access government funding, people should be grouped into registered organisations.

Musoke noted that if the crafts are produced on a large scale for export, they would increase foreign currency earnings.

John Walugembe, the Chief Executive officer of (FSMEs), said that SMEs play a key role in the economic development of the country especially when their businesses or enterprises are registered.

However, he noted that the process of getting a standard mark from the Uganda Bureaus of Standards (UNBS) is still a challenge for their products to compete on market.