GULU, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | The Minister of State for Trade, General Wilson Mbadi, has committed to soliciting more funding for the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to enhance its performance capacity. Lack of capacity, including understaffing due to inadequate funding have been blamed for failures to efficiently perform its roles, mainly prevention of substandard and counterfeit goods on the Ugandan market.
Speaking during a tour of the UNBS regional office in Gulu on Monday, Mbadi reaffirmed the ministry’s support for strengthening the agency to fulfill its mandate. The decentralisation of the standards agency’s services is aimed at reducing the cost of doing business, especially for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
UNBS Executive Director, Eng. James Kasigwa told the minister that UNBS was currently operating at limited capacity in terms of financial and human resources, which affects service delivery.
He added that the standards body had the potential to generate the highly needed Non-Tax Revenue (NTR) for the government but lacked adequate support. He, therefore, requested the Minister’s support in terms of increased funding and staffing for UNBS to support the government’s priority of export promotion, import substitution, and industrial growth.
Mbadi applauded UNBS for the work done using the meager resources and committed to supporting the increase of UNBS funding and staffing to strengthen the decentralisation of UNBS services, including easing the certification of products. In the financial year 2023/2024, UNBS certified over 5,000 products and 1,600 MSMEs.
The minister also cited the need to have UNBS regional offices and presence in all the 10 Agro-ecological zones and all planned industrial parks in the country to support the production of quality products and fast-track certification of MSMEs. Currently, the UNBS Northern region office offers certification, testing, and market surveillance services to the business community in West Nile, Lango, Acholi, Parts of Karamoja, and lately Masindi district.
UNBS also has a Western region office based in Mbarara and an Eastern region office based in Mbale but some critical services of UNBS like Calibration and Legal Metrology are not offered in the regional offices. The UNBS decentralisation agenda is aimed at improving efficiency in service delivery by reducing the cost of doing business since MSMEs in the different regions can now get UNBS Certification and testing services without traveling to the UNBS Head office in Kampala.
At least 90 percent of the enterprises in the country are MSMEs and 40 percent of these are concentrated in the central region, leaving the majority 60 percent in the countryside underserved.
The move is also aimed at Improving the competitiveness of locally manufactured products in different parts of the country, to support export promotion and import substitution in line with the Parish Development Model and the National Development Plan IV.
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