By Reuben Twinomujuni

Last weekend I was invited by a friend to attend his daughter’s baptism ceremony in Bushenyi.

I used the opportunity to visit some old friends. While there, I saw several hides and skins in homes as doormats, on the ground for people to sit on while others were lying idle and abandoned.

Later in the day it rained and got so cold. I decided to go to the nearby town to buy a jacket; I immediately was attracted by a leather jacket. I quickly grabbed it and took it to the lady manning the shop for pricing.

The price was so repulsive that I speechlessly clung onto the leather jacket as I blankly gazed at her. In that my state, I remembered the hides and skins lying idle in homes I visited and others I didn’t visit. The abandoned hides and skins of goats, sheep, calves and cows are the products of the leather jacket I was holding and failing to pay for.

I then remembered Prof. John David Kabasa’s presentation during the Academic and Practical Skills Conference, August 7 – 9, 2019 at Kyambogo University.

The presentation had stunning statistical information and thought-provoking. The professor revealed that Uganda has lots of animals; an estimated animal population of:   Cattle – 14 million, Goats – 12.5 million and Sheep –5.4 million according to (GoU, report 2008). With this, the leather industry would be booming. 

Unfortunately, Uganda has five million peasant households, under-producing populations, void of commercial enterprise, deficient human capital, and mass youth unemployment.

Consequently, we lose sh1,339,100,000,000 (1.3 trillion) annually due to inefficiencies in the leather sector. This is more than the sh1trillion allocated to Agriculture Sector in FY 2019/20 (12% increase from prior year). This is equivalent to about 130,000 decent youth jobs (average Annual Income of 12 million/youth).

Leather is one of the most widely traded commodities with an annual production of over 18 bn sq. ft (FAO 2008).  Developing countries now account for over 60% of the world's leather, and this proportion is growing.

Africa has about 15% of the world’s cattle population (Uganda’s 1%). Thus Africa, and Uganda in particular are at the Centre of the booming leather industry as a key supplier of hides and raw materials.

The future of the leather industry in Uganda and East Africa is in complete value addition in the leather chain hence creating many job/employment opportunities for the youth and more revenue for the country.

The President too agrees with this. On Wednesday, July 31, 2019, while addressing people in Kisoro district during his campaign to sensitise communities on wealth and job creation in Kigezi region, the President, as reported by the New Vision, discouraged the importation of leather products such as footwear and car seat covers, adding that Uganda has raw materials to manufacture those products.

All this time as these thoughts were pacing through my mind, the leather jacket never left my hands; it had actually crawled to my chest. I was feeling very cold. The woman in the shop chose to ignore me with my wandering mind.

I reluctantly put the leather jacket back to its hanging place as I sluggishly moved out of the shop.

During the said Practical Skills Conference at Kyambogo University, it was revealed that Uganda has eight tanneries, four of these being large scale factories while 3 are medium-scale factories, and one is a small-scale factory. These factories mainly produce wet-blue leather for export (semi-processed) apart from 1 tannery that produces finished leather and leather products from Ugandan raw materials. Unfortunately, the world market demand for wet blue is quite low internationally at the moment.

I thought about the many mangoes, guavas and jackfruits that rot in the gardens, the maize and bananas that are sold at a giveaway price, and much more. I see a situation of dying of hunger while seated on gold.

The writer is the Senior PRO of Kyambogo University