Uganda’s business environment not yet conducive - experts
Ms Jennipher Mwijukye, the Uganda Freight Forwarders Association founder
What you need to know:
Government has been blamed for not doing much to address the problem.
KAMPALA.
The business environment in Uganda still leaves a lot to be desired, business leaders have said.
It emerged in a Business Forum on doing business last week in Kampala that agencies supplying power, construction permits and land registration remain a challenge.
Further, the private sector players maintain that there are several cases of multiple taxation, including trading licences, complicating ease of doing business.
“Among other things, we have to deal with the burden of non-tariff barriers. And even multiple licensing requirements is a problem to our members,” Ms Jennipher Mwijukye, of the Uganda Freight Forwarders Association, said.
The forum also blamed government agencies for not doing much in easing the business environment in the country.
The mass tax registration and expansion programme which sought to widen compliance appears to have left Small and Medium Enterprises with a higher burden than before.
“We have to pay for licences yet service delivery remains poor, it affects our growth,” Mr Nelson Mukiibi, an entrepreneur told the forum organised by the competitiveness and investment climate strategy (CICS) secretariat in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.
“The essence of this engagement is to harmonise how all agencies and departments operate in terms of service delivery. We can only make our private sector competitive once the burden of multiple licensing compliance is reduced,” Mr Peter Ngategize, the national coordinator of the CICS Secretariat said.
Former State minister for Investments Gabriel Ajedra said besides benchmarking within the region, action plans by agencies must be closely supervised and ensured that they are delivered.
“He said: “We can learn good practices from within the region. Take for instance electricity connection in Kenya. It’s already digitized. It makes it much easier for new customers getting on the grid.”
According Ms Mercy Kyomugasho of the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, some strides have been made such as completing registration of new businesses within a day or so.
Meanwhile, Mr Richard Oput, a senior staff at the Directorate of land registration admits that the pilot zonal offices in major districts, are yet to smoothly operate in respect to the turnaround time for those keen on the land registration services. He said: “We agree, our offices are yet to fully cope with the delivery in output, turnaround time. But so far we are on track.”
The ranking
According to the 2016 Doing Business Report, Uganda dropped from 101 to 105 in paying of taxes.
The 2016, World Bank report on Doing Business placed Uganda at position 122 from 135 out of 189 countries survey.
