Truck drivers queue at Elegu border point in Elegu Town Council, Amuru District. PHOTO/ TOBBIAS JOLLY OWINY
Buoyed by the 2023 Africa Risk-Reward Index’s seal of approval, which ranked Uganda as the most attractive economy to invest inside the East African Community (EAC) and the third across the entire African continent, the Museveni administration has outlined plans to make the country a hub for trans-shipment and re-export.
The Government of Uganda (GoU) is counting on the addition of the Gulu agro-based airport and completion of the Tororo-Gulu Meter Gauge Railway (MGR) bolstering a logistics hub set up in Gulu City last January.
The taxman has said the transport infrastructure will ensure perishable products processed from the logistics hub are effortlessly moved out of the country by air.
“We are looking at a seamless clearance and flow of trade such that you can transact and process your goods seamlessly without any hurdle,” Dr Geoffrey Okaka, the assistant commissioner for Field Services at Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), said.
The Gulu Logistics Hub is widely expected to unlock Uganda’s export potential to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and South Sudan.
“We expect to increase our exports to the region. We therefore import and re-export goods coming from the Mombasa port, even Dar es Salaam,” Mr Lino Criel Icila, the co-chair of the National Trade Facilitation Committee, told Saturday Monitor, adding, “This will also improve our economy in the local area by providing employment to the local people and speeding up clearance of cargo.”
Already, the GoU is in the process of finalising plans to partner with Boeing, one of the largest global aerospace manufacturers, to construct another logistics hub at Entebbe International Airport.
The hub will procure cargo planes for Uganda Airlines Company to handle logistics for exports to the USA where Boeing is based.
“The logistics hub at Entebbe International Airport will have cold chain infrastructure to handle cold chain cargo exports. It is also seeking a private partnership to establish a Free Port Zone at Entebbe International Airport to encourage trade, investment and economic activity by reducing costs and bureaucracy,” Mr Simon Kagumire, the principal logistics officer for Rail and Water Transport Department at the Works and Transport ministry, disclosed.
One-stop border posts
The GoU is also considering private partnerships for the development of inland container depots and multimodal logistics hubs at Tororo, Jinja, Pakwach and Kasese.
This is captured in the National Transport and Logistics Policy which was passed by the Cabinet in November of 2021.
“The Ministry of Works and Transport has prepared a National Integrated Transport Master Plan 2021-2040, which among others, focuses on interventions to improve cost-efficiency along all the logistics chains and concentrates on improving capacity and efficiency of our transport corridors,” Mr Kagumire told Saturday Monitor, noting that the GoU has completed the construction of one stop border post (OSBP) facilities at Uganda's key border crossings with Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC and South Sudan.
The GoU has also, per Mr Kagumire, agreed with the Government of Kenya to establish and gazette two more OSBPs facilities at Mulwadda and Buteba as alternative routes.
It is believed these OSBPs will substantially reduce traffic congestion at the Malaba and Busia border posts.
In a bid to concretise Uganda’s switch from a landlocked to a land-linked country, State actors have come to the realisation that the country’s road network has to improve. Vastly.
“In the medium term, we will undertake three road capacity improvement projects, 12 road rehabilitation projects and 41 periodic road maintenance projects,” Mr Waiswa Bageya, the Works and Transport permanent secretary, revealed in a May 28 statement in which the paved kilometres of road network was put at 6,306km.
Saturday Monitor has established that SGR lines to be developed include the northern line from Tororo-Gulu-Nimule (465km), with a spur from Gulu-Pakwach to Vurra (297km); and the western line from Kampala-Bihanga-Kasese-Mpondwe, with a spur to Hima Cement (383km).
Others are the southern line from Bihanga Mirama hills (Rwanda border), with a spur to Muko (280km), and the eastern line, from Malaba to Kampala.
Whereas the feasibility studies for the northern, western and southern SGR lines are said to be ongoing with plans to start construction before 2026, the GoU is said to be developing a tri-modal port at Bukasa for cargo.
It will connect to Musoma and Mwanza in Tanzania and to Kisumu in Kenya.
Trade scorecard
The World Bank estimates that Uganda’s exports have increased to $1,110m (Shs3.9 trillion) in April 2025 from $899.1m (Shs3.2 trillion) in March 2025.
Exports in the country averaged $200.93m (Shs719.6b) from 1993 until 2025, reaching an all-time high of $1,110m in April 2025 and a record low of $12.39m (Shs44.4b) in July 1993.
The exported commodities are majorly agricultural products (80 percent of total exports), with coffee leading at 22 percent of total exports.
This is followed by tea, cotton, copper, oil and fish.
These commodities are traded with South Sudan (15 percent), Kenya (10 percent), DRC, the Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Whereas Kenya, EAC’s largest economy, has traditionally remained Uganda’s largest trading partner, recent data indicates how Tanzania slowly rose above it.
In the financial year (FY) 2023/2024, Uganda imported goods worth $4.17b (Shs14.9 trillion) from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the rest of Africa combined, of which almost half was from Tanzania.
To this, 42.56 percent of Uganda’s imports from within Africa were, in the year ended June 2024, sourced from Tanzania.
Imports from Kenya were put at 19.55 percent and those from South Africa at 6.43 percent.
Gold forms more than half of Uganda’s imports from Tanzania.
URA data indicates that Uganda imported gold worth Shs1.08 trillion in 2023 from its southern neighbour.
Yet it’s not all prim and proper.
A month ago, the Bank of Uganda (BoU) reported that Uganda’s exports to Kenya suffered a significant decline.
The central bank revealed that exports dropped to $17.7m (Shs63.4b) in March, the lowest in six years.
This represents a 65 percent decrease from the average monthly exports of $50 million (Sh179b).
BoU data also shows that exports to Rwanda also declined sharply to $2.5m (Sh8.9b) down from an average of $20m (Shs71.6b).
DRC, South Sudan potential
Per the central bank dataset, South Sudan and the DRC emerged as top export destinations, with earnings of $53.5m (Shs191.6b) and $47m (Shs168.3b), respectively.
Uganda's exports to Tanzania, however, decreased to $3.4m (Shs12.2b), down from $13m (Shs46.6b).
Elsewhere, exports to China increased to $19.2m, up from the monthly average of $8m (Shs28.6b).
Meanwhile, under informal exports, the DRC topped the list at $31m, Kenya ($9m), Rwanda ($6.2m (Shs22.2b)), South Sudan ($4.7m (Shs16.8b)), and Tanzania ($4.5m (Shs16.1b)).
The data on South Sudan and the DRC shows why a lot of hope is being invested in the Gulu Logistics Hub.
“This hub is a game changer for the trade facilitation in the East African region, it is a key step towards combating smuggling and diversion of goods along the Northern Corridor and it will tighten also the ties between the countries along the corridor, especially South Sudan and DRC Congo,” Col Maksudi Zizi Lila, the South Sudanese Revenue Authority’s deputy commissioner for trade facilitation, told Saturday Monitor.
Col Lila added that the hub is critical in the movement of transit goods within this region and beyond.
Additionally, it is expected to enhance URA’s operations along the DRC-South Sudan link roads.
This will ultimately enhance revenue operations between the two countries.
“This hub will make the work of our part of clearance much easier. Uganda’s support is really helping strengthen our ties through cooperation in various customs operations, its assistance in trade facilitation is crucial to the success of our activities and initiatives as South Sudan,” Col Lila said.
A work in progress
According to the Works and Transport ministry, phase 1 of the project is set to be completed this month.
The GoU is also prospecting private partnerships to build a new ship to replace MV Kabalega, including the redevelopment and upgrade of Port Bell and Jinja piers, among others.
Recently, the construction of the 1,443km East African Crude Oil Pipeline kicked off by the Uganda government in partnership with its Tanzanian counterpart to transport oil produced from Uganda's Lake Albert oil fields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania to enable Uganda trade its oil globally.
“The government is committed to overcoming the bottlenecks that affect the transport and logistics sector, especially in the field of infrastructure, and will continue working with the private sector stakeholders to enhance the development of the sector in Uganda and the Eastern African region,” Mr Kagumire disclosed.
A 2023 study by the EAC Secretariat offers support.
It detailed how Uganda attracted the most intra-EAC investments valued at $280.74m (Shs1 trillion), though representing a 28 percent decline from $391m (Shs1.4 trillion) in 2022.
The GoU also attracted the highest volume of investments from its regional peers in the East African Community (EAC) in 2023, highlighting the country's increasingly pro-business policies that allow foreigners to own property, establish businesses, make investments, acquire domestic companies and establish Greenfield investments.
