I'm being criminalised for promoting value addition – Museveni
President Museveni inspects a parade during celebrations to mark Uganda's 60th independence anniversary at Kololo Independence Grounds on October 9, 2022
What you need to know:
- While delivering his speech at the Independence Day celebration at Kololo on Sunday, the President sounded not happy with what he called the political actors who fought his idea of promoting value addition in the country starting with the coffee sector.
President Museveni has boasted of being the leading promoter of value addition to goods produced in Uganda, despite pulling ropes with “parasites who work for foreign interests and political actors”.
Mr Museveni faced resistance from the public early this year when he backed Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited to take over the value-addition process for all the coffee in Uganda with monopoly powers.
Uganda’s agreement with Vinci had granted incentives like a 10-year tax holiday, a monopoly to buy premium coffee, free land and other amenities.
However, after heated discussions and pressure from the general public, Parliament took a decision to terminate the deal. News of Parliament’s decision to terminate the controversial coffee deal was received with delight and relief with a section of stakeholders applauding the 11th Parliament for standing with Ugandans.
While delivering his speech at the Independence Day celebration at Kololo on Sunday, the President sounded not happy with what he called the political actors who fought his idea of promoting value addition in the country starting with the coffee sector.
“Parasites like the Monitor attack government initiatives. A recent example was their caption "coffee deal stinks, culprits won't be punished". I am the culprit, come punish me. In other words, am committing a crime trying to add value to our coffee,” he wondered.
“In Uganda, we've had fights with political actors over value addition. Everything is got from outside yet the raw materials are available. At least we have started producing our own posho, processed milk, fertilisers and some textiles,” Mr Museveni added.
The same issue (coffee deal) is still in court as December 15 was set for the ruling after a section of lawyers including Mr Henry Byansi and Mr Michael Aboneka petitioned the court asking it to declare unlawful the agreement signed between the government and coffee exporter.
The respondents in the case are the Attorney General, Mr Kiryowa Kiwanuka, and Uganda Vinci Coffee Company Limited.
Uganda is the top exporting country in Africa and its total coffee production represents about five per cent of the global production.
President Museveni and policy experts in the Finance Ministry and UCDA are convinced that the country could earn more money by processing all its coffee and either consuming it locally or selling processed coffee to the international market.
