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Setting the standards for business

Interview - June 23, 2014
In an interview with United World, Dr Ben Manyindo, Executive Director of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards speaks about how is organisation plays a crucial role in commercialisation and international trade in Uganda.
DR BEN MANYINDO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UGANDA NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS
DR BEN MANYINDO | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UGANDA NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS
How are you promoting and upgrading the level of Standards within Uganda?

One of the main challenges that we have in Uganda, and that you will find out in most of developing countries is the issue of standards implementation. When you look at quality, is something that is not well understood by consumers and producers, and the reason is that developing countries and Uganda in particular took time to appreciate the role of standards and quality issues. So we came late on scene.

This Institution became operational in 1989 as statutory body under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives with the mandate of creating the inexistent standards framework by promoting its use in every subsector, specially in manufacturing, industry and agriculture. The economic and trade environment was totally different from what it is today. At that time, Government was doing most part of the businesses but today with the liberalization and with the advent of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1995 the dynamics in the market place changed allowing the private sector to come in and do businesses instead of Government. Unfortunately that shift was not accompanied by the necessary regulatory framework and reforms.

Today the private sector is able to learn the rules of trade in the market place, appreciate and adopt all the requirements. In this scenario our role is to promote; if you are producing certain goods locally, those goods have to meet certain standards, the most important ones: safety and quality. If you are importing those goods have to meet the national standards, so now the consumers are protected and also get value for money. UNBS’ role now is to reach out on the business community, to reach out to the consumers and make them aware that there is need for compliance to standards in the market place. That’s why we have stakeholder’s engagement, and we do it sector by sector: agriculture, manufacturing, service, etc.

The engagement and awareness creation of standards and quality drive the certification and branding of Ugandan products. You will see on the products the different quality marks (Q or S-marks), without that, they are not meeting the requirements of the national standards and should not be in the market place.

How is Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) acting as the passport to the market place? Which are the key measures that you have adopted?

Our mandate is based on four priorities. The first one is putting standards in place by formulating and promoting their use. The second one is to enforce standards in protection of public health and safety, fighting against dangerous and sub-standard products. The third one is encouraging manufacturers to meet the standards and requirements that will strengthen our economy by assuring the quality of locally manufactured products, enhance the competitiveness of exports in regional and international markets. For that we need to constantly create awareness. And the last priority is to ensure fairness in trade and precision in measurements in industry through reliable and traceable measurement systems.

Uganda is leading the integration of the East African Community (EAC). Taking into account that the biggest consumer market is the regional one and that Uganda aims to be the food basket of the region. How is the EAC harmonizing the standards at regional level and what is the role that UNBS is playing in this economic integration?

When you take a look at the trade opportunities that Uganda is having now, you should look at three main markets: Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and Tripartite Level (COMESA, EAC, and Southern African Development Community-SADC). Here the mutual recognition of goods and services turns fundamental. That’s why the national certification of the products is essential, without that the free movement of goods and services will be impeded. For example, with the framework of EASC, UNBS participates in harmonization of East African Standards. A total of 1212 East African Standards have been harmonized and are currently under implementation and benchmarked to international best practices.

Can we see Uganda as the perfect gateway to those economic communities?

The regional market is getting bigger and bigger and the possibilities of these trade areas are unexplored. As the consumer market increase the opportunities for selling products are there, as the Minister told you, Uganda’s business environment is very friendly, market oriented and with lot of incentives that the general public don’t know about. Our biggest challenges remain power and infrastructure, but the Government is now focussed in those key areas and with the discovery of oil, Uganda will easily turn into the preferred destination of foreign investment in the region.

What needs to be done to take full advantage of the abundant natural resources and strategic location of Uganda? There is also a need of technology and human capacity building that has to be solver in the near future if the country aims to meet its potential.

We have to solve the competitive equation, Uganda’s economic growth and competitiveness requires:

Firstly, Uganda needs standards, for their products and services. We need to create awareness and promote them along the capable agents of the economic prosperity: associations, foundations, private sector companies, etc. For example, there is a huge need of packaging, we need to upgrade the packaging of our products and for that we need investors and knowledge.

Secondly, there is a need for technology. Not just for measuring the standards but also for adding value to our products. Regarding this, Uganda should encourage the use of high technologies, efficient ones. Germany, United States or other developed economies could play a major role especially in the area of agro processing.

Thirdly, skilled labour remains one of the biggest obstacles in our country. There is a lack of skilled work force. We should put more efforts in our development of human capital. We have a young population but we should take full advantage of them by training and upgrading the level of our academies and universities, specially in the areas of technology, innovation and research.

And the last one, Infrastructure development. Uganda’s infrastructure gap requires investment and support. The Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) and the Ministry of Works and Transport have designed an infrastructure road map that will solve this issue. Railways are also fundamental as well as more infrastructure development in ICT and power generation and supply.

Once this competitive equation gets solved, which will be the areas that will be interesting for foreign investors? As this report will be distributed during the African Leaders Summit in Washington next August 46 African leaders and the United States audience will be reading about Uganda. Which investment opportunities would you like to point out for them?

The Government has created a friendly Private Public Partnership environment that is bringing more and more investors to our economy. Working together investors can bring solutions to the main challenges that our country is facing and overcome them successfully. The investment returns are there and are high, with the good incorporation of technology and expertise we will be able to add value and to market our main commodities, specially agriculture related products. If I have to choose one area where the investment opportunities are high that will be agro-processing and packaging. Services are growing faster than manufacturing, that’s a good indicator of how our economy is getting developed. We need to be more aggressive selling and marketing our products abroad and take full advantage of our programs offered by United States such as AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act).

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