By Ambrose Gahene
Uganda’s Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) proprietors who have been incurring high costs to have their export products accredited by foreign firms have a case to smile, as government move to begin accrediting all export products from within the country.
The Minister of state for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Hon. David Bahati revealed this during celebrations to mark the World Accreditation Day at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala on Thursday.
Minister Bahati said, with the introduction of the Uganda National Accreditation Services (UGANAS) facility in Kampala, the cost for accreditation by SMEs and other manufacturing or Agro- processing companies would drastically reduce. He said Uganda’s SMES and other companies engaged in export currently carry out accreditation of their export products from laboratories located in Kenya, South Africa and European Countries among others.
“Ugandan SMEs are expected to reduce the cost of export products from USD 700 to USD 100 by 2030”. He enumerated some of the products exported by Ugandan SMEs to the East African Community (EAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Asia and European Union (EU) to include Tea, Coffee, Milk, Fish, Eggs, Beef and Cereals among others.
John Patrick Kabayo, UGANAS Board Chairman, said their job is to ensure all stakeholders in the export value chain follow standards. He said accreditation builds international trade trust and helps to advertise products meant for export.
“Accreditation of products is only recognized when accompanied by an accreditation certificate. It builds trust between trading partners and benefits international trade”, he said.
Mr. Ali Kalema, the Executive Director, Halal Assurance- Uganda, a certification and Industry Quality Assurance Company, said they collaborate with South Africa’s SGS Gulf Ltd, to carry out certification of products exported by Ugandan SMEs.
“Halal Assurance Institute-Uganda has signed a partnership agreement with SGS Gulf to facilitate export trade for Ugandan SMEs products”, he revealed.
“With such recognized accreditation body, rejection of Uganda’s products on the international market will be no more.’’ Kalema asserted.
During the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar, Uganda’s export meat was rejected due to lack of an internationally recognized certification and this made the country to lose a lot of millions of dollars.
The World Accreditation Day Celebrations was attended by officials from Ministries of Trade, that of Health and Agriculture, plus the Uganda Police Force (UPF), Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) and Key Exhibitors of Ugandan Agro processing SMEs among many others.
The celebrations ran under the theme: “Accreditation: Empowering Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enhance competitiveness for export promotion”.