Coffee exporters earnings shoot up

The Authority revealed that Uganda exported a total of 743,517 bags of coffee valued at $121 million (sh 435 billion) compared to July’s $104 million.

According to UCDA, the impressive performance of the sector comprised 689,261 bags of Robusta coffee valued at $111.4 million (sh 417 billion) and 54,256 bags of Arabica coffee valued at $10.2 million (sh 38.1 billion).

Compared to last year’s performance, there was a 48.19% growth in quantity and 70.73% in value.

Recently, the Speaker, Anita Among, directed the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to conduct an independent investigation into the utilisation of sh1.9 billion allocated for the purpose of ‘coffee consumption’.

“We want to know who disbursed that money and who benefited from it. We need that money, and the person who benefited from it must bear the liability,” she said during the plenary.

It is premised on a report by the Public Accounts Committee (Central Government) on concerns raised by the Auditor General for Financial Year 2021/2022 on 15 MDAs.

The report presented by committee chairperson Medard Sseggona indicates that, as part of the NUSAF-III programme, OPM signed a two-year memorandum of understanding with M/S Inspire Africa Uganda Limited as a capacity-building partner.

The programme that ran from May 16 to May 15, 2017 was extended for another two years up to March 31, 2021, a period in which Inspire Africa was allocated Shs9.66 billion for its activities.