Museveni reechoes need for value addition

Museveni, who made the remarks during the opening of the second G25 Coffee Summit, which is being held at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala, said that Africa has been cheated for its exports.

Museveni said that out of the $460 billion coffee market, Africa only earns a paltry $2.4 billion because it exports low-value coffee.

"Out of the $460 billion global coffee value, the coffee-producing countries only take $25 billion, and Africa gets only $2.4 billion, with $845 million going to Uganda because we are now producing 8 million, 60 kg bags each, plus now," he said.

 He added: "A kg of bean coffee of good quality may go for $2.5 per kg. The same quantity of coffee roasted, ground, and packaged may go for $40. This is where there is a massive haemorrhage of money from the global South to the global North. It is not only the loss of money per kg. It is also the loss of jobs. If you take the whole spectrum of raw materials from agriculture, minerals, forest products, etc., the loss to Africa is massive."

During the Summit, Museveni also revealed that Uganda has huge uranium deposits and that he was once approached by a group of people he did not name who wanted to mine and export it.

 "Uganda has a lot of Uranium. Some years ago, a Western company came and proposed to mine the Uranium. I asked them, "Mine it and take it where?" They said, "Export it." I asked them, "Export it for what purposes?" They told me that it was for the purposes of generating nuclear energy for electricity and other uses such as medicine, vector control, etc. I, then, asked them: "Have you heard a rumour that there are human beings here in Uganda who need electricity, nuclear medicine, and vector control services? Why don’t you propose to build that capacity here for the benefit of these human beings who live in Uganda, and maybe we can put aside some quantity of uranium for supporting the economies of our friends in the West?" They never came back," he revealed.