The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC), and The Uhuru Institute for Social Development (TUI) will on 8 September 2017 sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance production and productivity in agribusiness, among cooperatives and other citizen collectives.

Uganda is endowed with abundant natural resources, variety of marketable agribusiness products, an enterprising youthful population, and the potential of becoming the most competitive market in the great lakes region. But the use of primitive technologies, subsistence farming, limited knowledge and small scale farm units, and poor access to markets, dilapidated storage structures and exorbitant transport costs, among others undermine this potential.

Recognizing the significant role that cooperatives and other citizen collective formations play in the agribusiness value chain, MTIC and TUI pledge to support them in the areas of:

• Reconstruction of storage facilities,
• Improving access to competitive markets,
• Development of collective drying platforms in villages,
• Acquisition of food processing technology for value addition,
• Access to affordable transport, and competitive markets,

“We recognize the need for MTIC and TUI to cooperate and partner towards maximizing our complementary capacities and functions in promoting the role of cooperatives and other citizen collectives in expanding our market competitiveness in the region and beyond,” said Leonard Okello, the CEO of TUI.

MTIC undertakes to:

• Provide strategic leadership in designing, and roll out of this partnership.
• Support the TUI cooperative profiling initiative.
• Create necessary linkages to relevant government agencies.
• Support negotiations for the necessary technical capacity in value addition.
• Institute a favourable policy framework.

TUI undertakes to:

• Train cooperatives and other farmers’ associations.
• Supporting redeveloping of cooperative & farmer’s storage capacity.
• Support in the development of reliable marketing infrastructure.
• Advocate for appropriate government policies and investment.

MTIC and TUI will jointly mobilise resources for the initiatives aforementioned, through an effective public private partnership. The MoU is valid for 3 years, renewable.

–ENDS–

About the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives is the Government of Uganda Agency mandated with developing the trade infrastructure, identifying and negotiating strategic trade agreements, coordinating industrial growth, and leading the growth of productive market oriented Co-operatives Societies, for sustainable development for Uganda.

About The Uhuru Institute for Social Development

Founded in 2013 on social business and supportive cooperative principles, The Uhuru Institute for Social Development offers a variety of products and services geared towards driving Ugandans in taking a center stage in realizing holistic socio-economic development. We offer a 360 degrees’ solution to cooperatives, and other informal forms of collective organizations.