Duplicate agencies won’t deliver industrialisation

On Monday this week, the President launched a 32-member task force on technology to spearhead Uganda’s industrial revolution and drive the country’s industrialisation. It’s ordinarily an exciting initiative because of the perceived prospects. It also reflects the President’s passion to industrialise the country and transform the economy. Good vision. However, under this noble initiative, lies utter confusion and blurred sense of how to achieve the industrial revolution. The creation of parallel agencies for the same purpose is abundant proof of lack of clarity in our plan to achieve our vision.
There exists Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), a statutory body established to carry out scientific and industrial research to improve existing technology for industrial production under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

A presidential task force on technology was launched on Monday under ministry of ICT for the same purpose. There is the Uganda National Council of Science and Technology, comprising of experts in science and technology, who primarily should study emerging technologies and provide appropriate solutions for the industrialisation process.
The Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) was created in 2005 to spearhead science and technology research that would lead to processed banana products for export. Since its launch, PIBID has not produced a single consignment of processed bananas for export, but gets government funding every year.

With PIBID in place for 15 years, the biggest value addition Uganda has achieved is exporting perishable fresh bananas. Processed banana products by PIBID are only seen during trade shows for exhibition purpose. We also have the Presidential Initiative on Science and Technology (PIST), whose primary purpose also is to enhance science and technology innovations in the country. Why do we have parallel agencies set up for the same purpose, but achieving nothing of the same?
Government created Naads to transform agriculture and fight poverty but later created Operation Wealth Creation with similar mandate and objective. This only achieved wasteful funding without tangible results in poverty reduction or agriculture modernisation.

There is the statutory Inspectorate of Government established to fight corruption. But we also have a parallel anti-corruption unit under State House for the same task.
It’s the creation of such multiple agencies for the same purpose that has failed our visions; industrialisation, poverty eradication, modernisation of agriculture, fighting corruption etc. This confusion of tasks and mandates cannot deliver industrialisation. They instead serve to drain the national treasury under the cover of industrialisation.
Therefore, it’s a puzzle how the task of the presidential task force launched on Monday differs from the mandate of the existing statutory agencies set up for the same purpose.

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