Economy not competitive – Balunywa

Traders in a Kampala Capital City Authority Sunday market. Many Ugandans are involved in small scale trade PHOTO BY STEPHEN WANDERA.

Kampala- The principal of Makerere University Business School, Mr Waswa Balunywa, has said Uganda’s economy is not competitive despite impressive economic growth figures being quoted over the years.

Uganda has for more than two decades experienced growth. However, Mr Balunywa says the economy has remained uncompetitive, which presents a number of challenges to policy makers.
Discussing a paper during the International Monetary Fund meeting in Kampala on the economic outlook of Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Balunywa said: “Uganda’s economy is not competitive both at the regional and global level. Thus the country faces a problem of low export productivity, graft and poor quality of education.”

He said the Shilling had significantly dropped against the dollar because of low export growth.

“The Shilling might trade at Shs3,500 per dollar around this time (early May) next year because there is little foreign exchange flow. The financial system is not sound as depicted in newspapers,” he said.

The IMF recently projected Uganda to grow at 5.3 per cent in the 2014/15 financial year and will increase to 5.8 per cent for the 2015/16 fiscal year.
However, Ms Clara Maria Salama, a senior official at the IMF African department, said much of Uganda’s problems were external rather than internal.