Government plans to form National Trading Corporation to promote Ugandan exports

This was revealed by the Minister for Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives, David Bahati, during a breakfast meeting organised by the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development (PACEID) at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

Bahati said the idea of a national trading company, which has already been implemented in Kenya, aims at facilitating government-to-government trading and promoting value addition to Ugandan exports.

He further revealed that the yet-to-be-formed NTC will also aim at creating quality firms and producers in 13 major sectors of the Ugandan economy to boost the demand for Ugandan exports and strengthen Ugandan firms.

Bahati also said that although NTC will focus on addressing the demand for Ugandan goods and services from neighbouring countries such as Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Tanzania, and Rwanda, among others, it will also aim to create business friendships with several other countries on the continent, mostly those beyond the eastern Africa region.

The formation of the NTC is generally aimed at improving Uganda’s trade deficit with other countries on the African continent and beyond.

In May this year, Uganda recorded a trade deficit of $443 million, which was a $56 million deficit increase.

According to Pulse Uganda’s sister media platform, Business Insider, some of the African countries that earn the most from exports on the continent include South Africa at $ 130 billion, Nigeria at $ 63.7 billion, Angola at $ 27.5 billion, Ghana at $23 billion, the DRC at $ 21.6 billion, the Ivory Coast at $ 18.1 billion, and Kenya at $ 11.7 billion, among others.