Gen Mbadi outlines priorities as state minister for trade

“I will be very, very ready to work with everybody and I very graciously accept to take the mantle from Harriet Ntabazi so that I can also make my contribution, running the same direction, not the opposite direction, probably not at the same speed,” he said.
He said as the former Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), he was a net spender but now has been thrown into the deep end of looking for resources which he hopes to achieve. 

According to him, for a country to develop, the Ministry of Trade plays a very critical role in mobilising resources.
“So really, these plans and strategies and policies that my sister was talking about are a good start for us. We can only add on so that we go to what the president has been saying. He wants 500 billion US dollars GDP in the next 10 years. So incrementally, we must work towards that,” he added.
He implored the ministry to have a commercial attaché at every foreign embassy whose responsibility will be to sell Uganda as a business hub with great opportunities.

“Issues of marketing and advocacy. I have been moving around these countries. You find there is no commercial attaché. So who is speaking for trade here? Because diplomacy is no longer this traditional diplomacy. It is about commercial diplomacy. It's about the interests of the country. Diplomacy is just one aspect of the instruments of power, diplomacy, and politics. But also there must be someone talking about these things. So marketing and advocacy are things that are enabling,” he said.

Focus on UNBS, standards
He said while Uganda is talking about value addition, the middlemen who always take advantage of farmers may not be happy and will try to sabotage the programme by attempting to sidestep the value addition programme so that they exploit the farmers.
“The youths are looking for jobs and this trade is what can bring industrialisation and bad groups are all over. These things you are doing, don't think that those other guys who always sponsor doom like it because you are taking away raw materials from them when you talk of value addition. And so they will come after you differently,” he said.
He said the question of aflatoxin is a big threat that cannot be ignored and that all standards agencies and quality control people should work hard to make sure Ugandan-produced goods and products are not doubted elsewhere.
“We are saying that now, aflatoxin is about quality so quality control and UNBS, we are watching you seriously, not only for the sicknesses you are causing in Uganda but by sleeping on the job. So please, I will be watching those two areas because without those being sorted out, you cannot export. There's a lot of rot out there,” he said.

He said vanilla was a big business, with each kilogramme going for as high as Shs350,000, but the price has completely dropped, same with Cocoa where farmers mix jackfruit seeds with cocoa, and pass it as cocoa, thereby compromising the quality.

“A kilo of vanilla used to be Shs250,000 or Shs350,000 but now the prices have fallen. You look for someone to buy even at Shs5,000 and the person is not even there. Why has this price dropped? We have checked around with the quality, immature vanilla, we harvest immature vanilla, where is the quality control man? Does the ministry have the capacity to get down there? For Cocoa, these chaps are beginning to cut the seeds of jackfruit. They cut them, boil them, and then mix them with cocoa. What quality are we going to get from that?” he questioned.