Ugandan President calls for Stronger Trade Relations In Africa

Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni has called for stronger trade relations among African countries and lamented the high cost of buying products and services outside the continent

Museveni began a state visit to South Africa in a bid to encourage better economic ties between Uganda and Africa’s most developed economy.

He met with President Cyril Ramaphosa accompanied by members of his cabinet who were scheduled to meet with their South African counterparts and sign various trade and bilateral agreements.

Making brief remarks ahead of the meeting with Ramaphosa, Museveni emphasized the importance of intracontinental trade, while highlighting some of the challenges that were making this difficult to achieve.

Among some of his priorities was the procurement of coal from South Africa to be used to transform Uganda’s high-grade iron ore into steel, Museveni said.

“Our part of the world, as you can see, is very far from the ocean, 1,000 miles,” he said.

“Bringing steel products from China, India, and Ukraine, in the past, is very expensive, the freight alone is bigger than even the cost of the product itself.

“So it is very important that we develop an inland steel industry for Uganda and those areas around there. We need coal from South Africa,” he said.

Museveni said it is important for the continent to be peaceful in order for intracontinental trade to be successful.

“This will be a free trade area only if it is peaceful. But now the whole place is in chaos,” he said.

While Ramaphosa said South Africa sees Uganda as an important partner in East Africa and lauded its contribution to “regional economic and political integration as well as regional peace and stability.”

The South African leader said that “as a continent, we need to continue to work towards the peaceful resolution of conflict and emphasize dialogue over military confrontation. … South Africa remains deeply concerned about recent developments in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. We strongly condemn the upsurge of conflict, being fuelled by armed groups.”

South Africa and Ugandan ministers signed bilateral and economic agreements in various sectors including tourism, transport and agriculture.

Museveni and Ramaphosa were scheduled to address a South Africa-Uganda business forum later.

Report says Uganda is South Africa’s 15th-largest

AP/Christopher Ojilere