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Be bold, ambitious in south-south trade
Uganda, the World Bank says, must take advantage of larger markets to boost the country’s export sector. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- The issue: Trade
- Our view: Uganda has to make a fist of casting its trade net beyond the East African Community. It sells itself short by conceptualising trade perspectives through a handy but ultimately narrow EAC prism.
The revelation by the World Bank that Uganda has not met its expectations insofar as bolstering growth via intra-African trade is concerned is as instructive as they come.
The comment delivered—with a tone that was certain and prescriptive—at the 20th staging of the Uganda Economic Update must galvanise action. It comes at a time when there are growing calls aimed at ensuring that Africa is stronger than ever in the conviction that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is of great utility.
Started in 2019, the AfCFTA has been lumbering on as anything uncertain of its future would. Its ambitious target of increasing intra-Africa trade by one-quarter to translate into $70 billion by 2040 continues to evolve only negligibly.
At the recent US-Africa Leaders Summit, the importance of the continent blurring its colonial-era borders was allocated more urgency and resources. The instinctive, if ultimately naive, default position of looking inward was roundly condemned as a speed bump that hampers growth. Recent research points to the AfCFTA helping Africa finally begin to glimpse its chance for success. Its body of work estimates that intra-African exports can be the beneficiary of a tonic mustering anywhere between 27 to 32 percent if the continent displays a stronger degree of trade integration.
At the 20th edition of the Uganda Economic Update, the World Bank proffered that the AfCFTA has the potential to increase Uganda’s export income north of three percent. This is anything but small beer. It is growth in every sense of the word. We reckon it is useful and informative to note that growth is an outcome; not a policy. The question that invariably follows then is: how do we get the aforementioned outcome? The World Bank is, we believe, bang on in coming to the conclusion that this outcome is the product of great clarity and boldness. Going forward, the AfCFTA’s protocols have to be clear and enforceable. There are no two ways about it.
Most importantly, Uganda has to make a fist of casting its trade net beyond the East African Community (EAC). It sells itself short by conceptualising trade perspectives through a handy but ultimately narrow EAC prism. Moreover its peers in the EAC are doing a much better job broadening their outlook. We therefore challenge state actors in Uganda to push the envelope.
It is also useful to steer clear of the worst human impulses known to threaten the pursuit of growth. The Facebook ban in Uganda, for one, gives every impression of a country stuck in a time warp. It’s not an accident that the United States—as made known at last week’s US-Africa Leaders Summit—is clear-eyed about investing over $350 million to “expand digital access and literacy and strengthen digital enabling environments across [Africa].”
Yet instead of striving to have an enabling digital economy and infrastructure in Uganda, state actors are intent on ensuring otherwise. Business undertakings of mostly young people that once upon a time piggybacked on a Facebook presence have since January of 2021 been doomed.
We believe it’s in the country’s best interests that the powers that be dispense with such parochial thinking. It’s always important not to lose sight of the big picture.
