Ex finance minister Ssendawula rooting for coffee regulating body

AGRICULTURE    DEVELOPMENT

KAMPALA - The former Finance Minister Gerald Ssendawula has recommended that the government should establish a separate body dubbed Uganda Coffee Regulatory Authority (UCRA) to regulate the coffee sector.

Ssendawula said: "The National Coffee Bill 2018 gives much power to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) to carry out both development and regulatory functions, which creates conflicts of interests."

"The Bill continues to uphold a dual role to single-institution Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) which can't play both roles of development and regulatory. UCDA can't be a referee and at the same time a player. Mixing these two roles creates conflicts of interests and compromises the effective performance of the entity," Ssendawula warned.

The Coffee Bill was introduced by the government to repeal the Uganda Coffee Development Authority Act (UCDA) of 1994, which limits the powers of UCDA to only overseeing the coffee sector but with no punitive measures to punish errant farmers.

The Bill seeks to repeal and replace the UCDA Act which was enacted in 1991 and only covered off-farm activities of marketing and processing, leaving on-farm activities like planting materials, nurseries, harvesting and post-harvesting handling outside the scope of the law.

Ssendawula who is also the  Chairperson of the National Union of Coffee Agribusinesses and Farm Enterprises (NUCAFE), an umbrella of Coffee farmers and Coffee exporters in Uganda led a team of coffee growers, promoters and exporters on Friday to give their views on the National Coffee Bill 2018. 

The Bill is apparently scrutinized by legislators on the parliamentary committee on Agriculture chaired by Abim Woman MP Janet Okori-Moe.

Ssendawula pointed out: "To resolve the impasse, we are proposing two key institutions "We propose to the government and Parliament for  the creation of UCRA  to play the regulatory function while current the UCDA becomes an Agency  to play the development function." 

"We propose the current UCDA becomes Uganda Coffee Development Agency to play the development function given the critical importance of coffee to Uganda's economy, and then the Bill provides for the creation of the Uganda Coffee Regulatory Authority to play a regulatory function," he added.

Ssendawula explained that UCDA receives funds from the government for growing of coffee seedlings and their distribution, however, one cannot rule out the conflict of interest in regards to regulation. This is precisely why they propose the creation of the Uganda Coffee Regulatory Authority to play a regulatory function.

He added that Uganda is a member of the International Coffee Organization and is seeking, under the Coffee Roadmap, to increase coffee productions to 20 million bags by 2020. Uganda will not achieve this vision if it fails to create a UCRA to regulate the coffee sector,"

Ssendawula pointed out that if the government created the Uganda National Petroleum Authority, an organization that regulates the petroleum industry in Uganda, why not creates a Uganda Coffee Regulatory Authority to monitor the quality, and marketing of coffee, among other things.

Okori Moe asked Ssendawula if the creation of UCRA will not strain the government budget and he responded that it will not constrain the Budget but instead it will boost the quality of Uganda's coffee to meet the internationally accepted standards.

The West Budama MP Richard Othieno Okoth asked Ssendawula if the revival of cooperatives societies would improve the coffee industry and Ssendawula said: "The level of trust in running the cooperatives societies and unions in Uganda is very bad. Lack of trust among the cooperative members and the staff has affected the coffee industry." 

"I want to correct the position of NUCAFE that we are pleased with the bill to regulate coffee. I want to further state that we are not opposed to farmer registration. We are saying that registration as a farmer doesn't require a license."