THE MINISTER FOR EAST AFRICAN AFFAIRS OFFICIALLY OPENS THE 28th UMA EXHIBITION: EA TO HAVE A COMMON CURRENCY 2024

The Uganda Manufacturer’s Association 28th exhibition at Lugogo has been dully unveiled by the Chief guest Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaaga the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs on Wednesday.

The theme for this year is ,” Harnessing Economic Recovery Through Local Sourcing and Deepening Value Chain Integration.”

Speaking to journalists , Hon. Kadaaga said that the major challenges registered by traders especially in Mutukula currently are the rates of fractuation from one order to another, therefore concerning the common currency, the East African community is to embrace it by 2024 in a bid to combat the many other challenges.

Considering the Uganda air cargo, Kadaaga described that the private sector talks about is the air cargo and how to get their cargo out of Uganda.

“I have been pressurizing the minister for works because when I went to DRC on the first mission, one of the things they are most interested in is the cargo flights and I hope that Uganda air lines will also do the needful to start cargo flights in not only the DRC but also the ECOWAS region,” Kadaaga said.

She added that the barriers in the common markets are an interference and challenge like the customs union protocol, the common market protocol among several other protocols however application for more energies as the ministry to ensure solutions on this is guaranteed.

Government commits to development of infrastructure like Roads, Railways, Energy, ICT backbones and implementation of policies, plans and strategies to reduce on the cost of doing business, Mwebesa Francis the State Minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives noted.

He also included that this comes along with the removal of tariffs and non tariff barriers as trade in the business community will be assured of a huge market of over 1.3bn.