Don calls for law to restrict imports

By Petride Mudoola  

Parliament should enact a law to regulate goods imported into the country to promote locally manufactured products. 

Professor Mondo Kagonyera, the Makerere University chancellor, noted that the lack of a system to regulate imported goods hurts local investment.

“Having a streamlined system to regulate imports supports local industries and boosts local investment because some of the imported products are made locally,” Kagonyera said during the launch of Edu-Creations at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute in Kampala recently. 

Edu-Creations makes scholastic materials used in early learning. 

It aims at improving teaching and learning in Africa through visual aids and science equipment.

“There is need for a policy to regulate imports if the Government is to promote the locally manufactured commodities. 

“This will also help reduce the costs incurred on imported goods and enhance the country’s foreign exchange reserves,”Kagonyera observed.

He cited razor blades, needles, toys and nursery teaching aids as some of the products that could be manufactured in Uganda rather than being imported. 

“Importing products without any limit has affected local investors. 

“Some countries have focused on making products to export here, but the same goods could have been produced by our own people,” Kagonyera argued.

He cited Korea among the countries that have promoted their locally manufactured products. 

“This has been achieved by developing a selective investment policy to regulate importation of goods. 

“Such a law will help to restrict counterfeit products from entering the local market. It will also advance home-made goods, hence promote local investment,” Kagonyera noted.