RCC tips Kampala business community on standards

The Deputy Resident City Commissioner in charge of Kampala Central, Doreen Keita Kagabi, has told the renowned business personalities in Kampala that they need to work with the government on raising the quality of goods produced in the country. 

According to Kagabi, Uganda’s successful participation in the highly competitive regional, continental and international markets, demands good quality products. 

This, Kagabi said, can only be achieved through collectively ensuring adherence to standards. 

Addressing over 200 business personalities who turned up to elect the leadership of the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce-Kampala on Friday cited the embarrassing scenario of South Sudan and Kenya rejecting ‘our’ goods such as maize and milk on grounds of wanting standards. 

“Standards are still a big challenge to our trade. We need to encourage one another to ensure quality because it is very important. We can among others achieve this by improving our working environment,” she said. 

Despite scenarios of trade wars and competing state interests, Kagabi emphasised that issues of 'our' coffee and maize being dirty need to be addressed by among others, ensuring clean drying methods. 

“For the incoming team, I have full confidence that you are going to be problem solvers and the business community outside there are our bosses, we strengthen these people, we must protect them and on top of that we must reject things that compromise our standards,” she said. 

“I think we are remaining behind in our trade because there is nothing of quality we put out there. So we must fight for quality and standards and we shall be proud to stand up and say that this is made in Uganda” Kagabi added. 

Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a private-sector membership body composed of members from the business community in Kampala. It is a vibrant organisation focused on enhancing business opportunities locally, regionally and internationally. 

The new leadership led by Godfrey Mayanja highlighted three areas of strategic interest in their five-year term of office. 

“Firstly, in the light of ever-increasing regulatory developments affecting the business community such as tax codes, competition laws, and product liability regimes, among others, our first strategic focus will aim at stakeholder engagement by lobbying for a favourable regulatory framework supporting or killing them. The new leadership commits robust stakeholder engagement with relevant bodies to ensure business-friendly regulatory frameworks,” his statement read. 

The other members of Mayanja's executive include Daniel Lubogo the vice chairperson, John Batya Ssenkubuge the general secretary, Gideon Kabuye Kirumira the coordinator, and Tracey Nagawa, the treasurer, among others. 

Mayanja’s team pledged to increase the opportunities for traders and businesses targeting the growing population of Kampala. 

“As Uganda enters its oil and gas production era, we recognise that there are tremendous opportunities across the entire upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas spectrum. As such we focus on arming businesses with the right tools and information to take advantage of the opportunities by leveraging the chamber’s information-gathering tools and networks,” Mayanja said. 

They also promised to ensure that the Kampala business community explores, and exploits, the new opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement intra-Africa trade regime. 

“It is our firm belief that businesses in Kampala can establish a significant footprint across the entire African continent. It is therefore with great enthusiasm that the new leadership will work to promote AfCFTA sensitisation as part of its intra-Africa trade market access strategy for the business community in Kampala,” he said. 

Keziah Masezeje who represented the trade ministry, assured the business community of the government’s support in case of unfair trade practices from other countries. 

Masezeje, who also presided over the election, emphasised the need for the business community to take advantage of AfCFTA which broadens the market opportunity for Ugandan goods and services. 

“Let us fight for this common market for Africa first before talking about the American market among others, let us utilise this market of over 1.4 billion people from 55 countries. Negotiations are going on to ensure issues to do with trade tariffs are addressed,” he said. 

He reiterated the appeal of ensuring standards in order to deny countries seeking protectionism any room for excuse.