High transport costs make country less competitive in trade – Govt
Government through the Ministry of Trade has revealed that the country still faces high transport and trade costs, making it less competitive than its neighboring coastal countries.
This comes at a time in assessing her competitiveness, Uganda’s position is often negatively affected by its trading across borders ranking.
Overall, the World Bank Ease of Doing Business, 2011, ranked Uganda 122 out of 183 countries while for the trading across borders index, it was ranked 148.
By 2020, Uganda’s overall Ease of Doing Business ranking improved to 116 out of 190 scoring 60 percent. Nevertheless, over the last 10 years, Uganda has invested in improving transport, logistics, and customs management.
According to the World Bank report (2020), Uganda was ranked 121 out of 190 countries and scored 67 percent while it was also ranked in 12th position in Sub-Sahara Africa, behind Mauritius, Rwanda, Kenya, South Africa, and Zambia respectively.
Minister for trade, Francis Mwebase says as a result of the investments in the sectors, Uganda’s competitive position improved greatly.
He says it was ranked 116 overall in 2019, and 121 in trading across borders, ahead of South Africa which was ranked 127 (59.6 %) slightly below Kenya 117 (67.4%), and Rwanda 75 (88%) respectively.
Mr. Ibrahim Bbosa. the Uganda Revenue Authority spokesperson says for Uganda to improve its competitiveness and achieve its goal of being a logistical hub within East Africa, more effort is needed to improve its trading across borders ranking and this means enhancing trade facilitation, transport, and logistics.
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