MPs question poor returns from billions invested in science, innovations
One of the most striking cases is the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID), which has received sh311bn in Government funding over 20 years but generated only sh15.55bn in revenue.
MPs cautioned against judging innovation projects solely on their current financial returns, arguing that successful technologies require sustained investment and support to reach commercial production.
KAMPALA - Uganda has invested billions of shillings in science, technology and innovation, but Parliament has raised concerns about the limited economic returns, stalled projects and failure to turn locally developed technologies into commercially viable products.
The concerns follow a report by Parliament’s Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, which shows that some Government-funded projects have received substantial public resources over several years without achieving their intended commercial objectives.
Presenting the report during the 15th Sitting of the Second Meeting of the First Session of the 12th Parliament, committee chairperson Samuel Opio Acuti, the Kole North County MP, highlighted weaknesses in project management, commercialisation, funding and accountability across the subsector.
One of the most striking cases is the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID), which has received sh311bn in Government funding over 20 years but generated only sh15.55bn in revenue.
The project still has an operational funding gap of sh67 bn and requires another sh1.2 trillion to achieve full commercialisation.
Kole South MP Henry Boniface Okot questioned how such a project could remain at the pilot stage for two decades despite the substantial public investment.
“It is unacceptable for the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development to be under pilot for 20 years,” Okot told Parliament.
He said the project had received sh311bn but generated only sh15.5bn in revenue during the period.
Okot also questioned the management of the innovation subsector, noting that the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretariat has only 24 of its 151 approved positions filled, representing 15.9%.
With 141 projects under the subsector, he argued that the staffing shortage undermines effective supervision.
He proposed that the Government pause the introduction of new projects until it has sufficient capacity to monitor existing investments.
The committee’s report also raises concerns about Kira Motors Corporation, which has received cumulative Government funding of sh223bn since its establishment in 2014 but continues to depend on public financing.
However, MPs cautioned against judging innovation projects solely on their current financial returns, arguing that successful technologies require sustained investment and support to reach commercial production.
Kitgum Municipality MP Denis Oneka Lit Amere said Kira Motors had made significant progress since its early development at Makerere University and deserved further support.
He pointed to the electric buses already operating on Kampala’s streets as evidence of the potential of locally developed technology.
“Such an invention really needs to be supported under science and technology. We need to give it more resources to really boost it up to help develop the economy of this country,” Oneka said.
He also called for the prioritisation of institutions such as the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), arguing that their work in manufacturing and reverse engineering could reduce Uganda’s dependence on imported products.
Local innovators demand attention
Beyond the large Government-backed projects, MPs questioned whether Uganda’s innovation funding is reaching talented young people and small-scale innovators across the country.
Solomon Silwany, the Bukhooli County Central MP, said the report had not adequately captured the challenges facing innovators in rural communities, including talented schoolchildren and young people developing practical technologies.
“When you talk about Kiira Motors, you're talking at a higher level. But I am talking about the rural people, our young boys and girls who are so talented,” Silwany said.
He urged the Government to establish interventions to identify, finance and nurture grassroots innovators before their ideas are lost due to a lack of support.
Kwania North MP James Ongu similarly questioned how increased Government investment in science and technology was benefiting innovators outside Kampala.
He noted that Government spending on science, technology and innovation had increased from about sh500bn in the previous financial year to sh842bn in the current financial year.
However, he questioned whether innovators in regions such as Acholi, Lango, Teso and Bukedi were benefiting from the funding.
“We cannot afford as Government to have very huge elephant projects around Kampala only and within nearby Kampala,” Ongu said, calling for a strategy to identify and develop innovators across the country.
Universities struggle to commercialise innovations
The debate also exposed the difficulties universities face in turning research into products that can generate revenue, create jobs and solve practical problems.
Koboko County MP Emmanuel Natal Banya cited innovations developed by researchers at Muni University, including a cold-storage facility called Chuma Baridi, capable of maintaining temperatures below five degrees Celsius, and a technology that uses GPS and mobile phone notifications to help farmers monitor livestock and detect possible cattle theft.
Although the technologies have been tested, Banya said their developers were struggling to commercialise them.
He called for the Government to establish a competitive fund through which universities and other research institutions could access financing to take promising innovations from the research stage to the market.
He also warned against leaving commercialisation entirely to private companies without protecting researchers' intellectual property rights.
Speaker Jacob Oboth highlighted the funding gap facing public universities. He noted, “Honourable Members, let us be entirely serious about the future of higher education and innovation in this country. When we look at Makerere University, our premier institution, it is severely underfunded. Sh40 billion is simply not enough.”
He added, “We must stop joking with research and innovation. If we are truly committed to transforming Uganda through science, technology, and development, we must properly fund all of our public universities. Whether it is Muni, Gulu, Lira, Soroti, Busitema, or any other government institution, they all deserve equitable financial backing. I commit this Parliament to ensuring that in the next financial year, we finally sort out this funding crisis once and for all.”
The committee’s report reinforces the concern, revealing that only five of the 84 start-ups supported by UIRI successfully graduated from its technology business incubation programme.
Several other locally developed technologies, including an automated railway crossing barrier, a water meter prototype and a robot for digital agricultural extension and crop monitoring, have also struggled to reach the market.
The committee attributed the challenges partly to inadequate commercialisation financing, weak links between researchers and industry, and the absence of effective Government procurement arrangements for locally developed technologies.
It recommended a framework allowing public institutions to procure locally developed innovations that meet the required standards.
Gulu district woman MP Phoebe Ayoo also identified the high cost of product certification as another obstacle facing local innovators.
She urged the Government to increase funding to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to enable it to reduce certification costs, which she said were affecting innovators seeking to take their products to market.
The commercialisation challenge extends to agriculture, where locally developed technologies have not translated into widespread adoption among farmers.
The report indicates that although the National Agricultural Research Organisation has developed more than 40 improved seed varieties, 96% of agricultural households continue to use traditional seeds.
Only 2% of agricultural households use irrigation, while 22.6% use fertilisers. The consequences are reflected in maize production, where Uganda averages 1.8 tonnes per hectare, compared with the global average of six tonnes.
The committee warned that limited access to improved seeds, irrigation and other agricultural technologies was undermining productivity and the country's agro-industrialisation ambitions.
Innovation ranking declines
The concerns come amid a decline in Uganda's global innovation competitiveness despite increased Government investment.
According to World Intellectual Property Organisation Global Innovation Index figures cited in the report, Uganda dropped from position 114 among 129 economies in 2020 to 124 among 139 economies in 2025.
The report also shows that only one patent was granted nationally in 2024, according to Uganda Registration Services Bureau records.
Meanwhile, research and development funding remains at 0.4% of gross domestic product, below the African Union's recommended benchmark of 1%.
The committee called for a more equitable distribution of research funding among public universities, noting that Makerere University accounted for between 60% and 72% of allocations to universities in the financial years examined.
It also recommended milestone-based financing, under which institutions and projects would receive additional funding after demonstrating progress against agreed targets.
Govt promises reforms
Responding to the debate, Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi, who represented the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, welcomed the concerns raised by MPs and said the Government would consider the recommendations.
He acknowledged the need to expand support for young people, local innovators and the informal sector so that innovation initiatives are not concentrated in Kampala and other urban centres.
“The ministry should reach out to the informal sector and ensure that science and technology is not only urban-based here in Kampala, but these interventions reach the ground, the informal sector, the young people, so that everybody is involved,” Baryomunsi said.
He also committed the government to reviewing outdated legislation governing the subsector, including the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology Act.
The committee further warned that Uganda’s innovation policy framework, last comprehensively developed in 2009, has not kept pace with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and modern data governance.
The House noted that the concerns have implications for Uganda’s ambitions under the Fourth National Development Plan, which targets at least $500m in annual investment in technology development, transfer, industrialisation and commercialisation.
The Government also wants to establish 50 Ugandan innovation-driven enterprises, with at least 10 accessing export markets, and increase the subsector’s contribution to gross domestic product to at least $10bn by 2030.
However, the committee said it could not establish progress towards the $10bn target because of fragmented budgets and the absence of an effective system for tracking the economic contribution of science and technology investments.
It called for a national database to track research projects, innovations, prototypes, funding and progress towards commercialisation.