NEWS– President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has advised the European Union to address non-tariff barriers, saying it’s wrong to mix politics with business.
President made the remarks today March 6, 2024, at the 3rd Uganda-EU Business Forum at Speke Resort Munyonyo and the three-day forum which started yesterday is running under the theme: “Boosting Trade and Investment”.
“The non-trade barrier created by wrong politics where people mix politics with business, you need to advise governments in Europe to get out of that mistake, because there is no way you can control the world politically,” President Museveni advised.
Museveni explained to the participants that a business is an enterprise that makes profits and that the higher the profits the better, and terefore when talking about businesses, onecshould look at the level of profitability of businesses in this part of the world compared to Europe, Asia and other investment destinations.
He also said that for a business to make profits, it must have three elements which include, the production of a good or service, a consumer who has got the ability to pay for a good or service and the infrastructure which links the producer of the goods and services to a consumer which is transport and communication.
He urged the European Union to ensure that they engage in a serious dialogue with Africa to create more business opportunities among both parties and warned against exploitation and unfair division of labour by the western powers.
“One of the disablers of business has been the unfair division of labour in the world where Africa and some of the other places like Latin America produce raw materials and then the raw materials are taken to Europe and processed there into finished products. This is very dangerous. When you hear the chaos in some African countries now, the original problem is this one here. Those areas have got a lot of natural resources, but they have been exporting raw materials,” He said.
President Museveni also called upon the European Union countries to promote global Affluence in order to enable the success of businesses in the world.
“You as business people, you can pursue business but the political actors in Europe and all of us need to know that global affluence will give good business to everybody in the world,” He added.
President Museveni further welcomed the European companies to invest in Uganda, saying it is very necessary for both Uganda and European companies, because Europeans investing in Uganda is common sense and strategic.
The Ambassador of the European Union to Uganda His Excellence Jan Sadek said that the Uganda and European Union companies have a lot to offer in this trade forum because both have several trade opportunities.
The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional Affairs Hon John Mulimba, thanked President Museveni for attending the forum and for always guiding them in the right direction and also expressed the need for dialogue between Ugandan agribusinesses and the European companies about quality assurance.
While speaking at the same event the Minister of State for Investment and Privatization Hon Evelyn Anite, thanked President Museveni for gracing the forum and assured that Uganda is now in the take off stage, ready to embrace all favourable investment opportunities from European companies and a number of agreements were signed to boost investment opportunities between Uganda and European companies.
The initiatives include Green and Decent Jobs for Youth we Work at Euro 50m and the project aims to enhance the employability of vulnerable youth, including young women, as well as their access to green and decent employment, advancing Respect for Business and Human Rights (ARBHR) in Uganda at Euro 5 million whose aim is to contribute to the reduction of Human Rights abuse, particularly those impacting women, in business activities in Uganda.
Another initiative is to support the Agricultural Revitalization and Transformation facility at Euro 11.5 million which aims to boost value addition and agro-processing by unlocking affordable medium-midterm financing to agribusiness SMEs in Uganda and the Women Entrepreneur for Africa Programme within the Team Europe initiative investing in Young Businesses in Africa.
There is also the initiative of European Investment Bank (EIB) loan to Centenary Bank in Uganda and this project relates to online lending of Euro 50 million to micro-entrepreneurs and micro enterprises with a focus on female borrowers at 50% and clients in rural areas 60% and a loan to Housing Finance Bank at Euro 25 million which aims at providing financing to Housing Finance Bank-HFB for onward lending to a number of private sector entities, mostly small and medium enterprises with a particular focus on eligible businesses run by and or managed by women and the Towerco of Africa-Uganda at Euro 25 million to support the construction of 675 new mobile towers in Uganda and a BI-Green and inclusive growth in Uganda’s agri-food systems at Euro 12 million.
