Tag: Uganda

Building Uganda’s Industrial Future: A Case Study of the Kapeeka Industrial Park

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

One of the model industrial parks in Uganda is the China-Uganda Liaoshen Industrial Park in Kapeeka, Nakaseke District. About 80 different industrial establishments are spread over 5.2 square kilometres, with each sitting on a minimum of 20 acres. The name of the park is a combination of “Liao,” from Liaoning Province in northeast China and “Shen” from Shenyang, its largest city, where the chairman of the park, Mr. Zhang Hao, comes from. The conceptual planning of the park was made by the China Northern Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd, and President Museveni laid its foundation stone in 2015.

In its design, it is a fully serviced industrial park with good road and water networks, onsite electricity and a one-stop centre for all business services. It has supporting offices and facilities, including commercial offices, leisure and entertainment areas, and recreational and sporting facilities like football fields and tennis courts.

The industrial park is designed mainly for investments in Agro-processing, building materials, textiles, light industry, assembling of household appliances and logistics and warehousing. Most of these are planned to undertake manufacturing using mainly local raw materials and supply both local and export markets. Where certain raw materials cannot be sourced locally, investors are free to import them to support their manufacturing process.

The idea behind this industrial park, which was conceived in 2013, is to support the economy through value addition. This vision is already being achieved, with textile factories producing quality merchandise exportable to Europe as well as serving the local market. There are also a number of factories that are into food processing, e.g. maize milling and making snacks out of dried fruits.

The government is working to ensure there is a market for the goods produced from the park. It has signed trade agreements with China, COMESA, Europe and other trade blocs. The agreement between Uganda and China is critical since it helps the country to export products from Uganda to China without tax. Such incentives are in place to enable manufacturers to expand and produce more to supply the markets. These are the market opportunities that should be presented to investors to attract them to start businesses in Uganda.

As the country develops its industrial capacity, there is a need for the government to invest more in road infrastructure, extend and ensure reliable power supply to the industries, and build sewage and water facilities. Water is specifically identified as a challenge because Uganda does not have enough capacity to supply to all plants, and sometimes, the electricity also does not meet the industrial needs. Therefore, the government should address the challenge of an unstable power grid.

The managers of the industrial park are keen to ensure that local communities benefit from its opportunities. For instance, most of the local materials are purchased from Ugandans. Most of the people employed are also deliberately recruited from communities near the park. There are also, of course, indirect jobs created in the supply chain, e.g., people providing housing facilities, food, and other utilities.

At the start of the project ten years ago, few Ugandans could manage the technology of the park. However, with time, there has been skills transfer and more people are now taking on skilled work in the industries. More Ugandans are already doing better in the marketing and management field, where they started taking part from the commencement of the park.

With time, more Ugandans will understand the business and also take control of factory activities. The tile maker, Good Will factory, has already trained thousands of Ugandans on how the factory works, and the more Ugandans get skilled, the fewer the number of Chinese instructors. The ultimate goal is to have the factories fully run by locals.

The park’s parent company is Zhang Group, an entity that had existed in Uganda for about 20 years by the time the park was launched. The group brings together four enterprises: Hash Security, Airang Hotels and Restaurants, Smartec Hisense products and Liao – Shen industrial park. It invested over $400 million in the park and created employment for tens of thousands of people.

The story of this (these) industrial park(s) is promising because of several reasons, one of which is the fact that it is modelled after similar and successful parks in China. When China’s growth trajectory was taking off, the government invited foreign companies from Japan, the United States of America and Germany to start factories and equip the local people with skills. After about 10 years, local Chinese were able to run their factories. This is the hope for Uganda, too – achieving skills transfer and domestic ownership of the commanding heights of our economy.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.

Museveni Leads Bobi Wine Across Most Regions Ahead of Presidential Elections, New Poll Shows

Posted on By Admin

Download DWC Poll

As Uganda goes to the polls in five days’ time, a new national opinion poll has indicated National Resistance Movement flagbearer and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as a runaway favourite to beat his main challenger National Unity Platform (NUP) flag bearer Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, commonly known as Bobi Wine.

The poll, whose methodology and full results were released today by the Development Watch Centre (DWC) covers the period 19 November to 16 December 2025 and indicates that Museveni has the support of 60.94 percent of respondents nationally. Bobi Wine has the support of 35.26 percent nationally.

The poll, which involved interviews with 3,758 respondents in 42 districts spread across 12 of the country’s sub regions, indicates that Museveni leads Bobi Wine in 11 of 12 sub regions sampled.

In Bunyoro, Museveni leads with 70.00 percent against Bobi Wine’s 25.00 percent. In Karamoja, Museveni’s lead is at 68.90 percent against 26.77 percent for Bobi Wine. Ankole (67.39 percent: 30.21 percent), Lango (67.18 percent: 31.27 percent) are also strongholds for Museveni where his lead over Bobi Wine is wide. Bobi Wine is leading only in the Kampala sub region with 55.16 percent of respondents’ support against 42.26 percent for Museveni.

“We are going by the political attitudes of the respondents at the time of this research. If that political space remains the same until the election date, the numbers indicate President Museveni will likely be declared winner by an outright majority on 15 January and will therefore be avoided a second round run-off,” Dr Allawi Ssemanda, a research fellow at DWC noted.

Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) candidate Gen Mugisha Muntu placed third nationally with 2.21 percent against Nathan Nandala Mafabi of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), who placed fourth nationally with 1.33 percent. Other candidates had marginal shares of the vote nationally such as Mubarak Munyagwa with 0.16 percent, Robert Kasibante 0.05 percent, Joseph Mabirizi and Frank Bulira with 0.03 percent each.

The poll did not cover two sub regions – West Nile and Bugisu. Researchers say while it would have affected the rankings of individual candidates and boosted Mafabi’s figures given that Bugisu is his home region, its inclusion in the survey would not have altered the rankings of the leading candidates.

Demographic Patterns

The data shows a distinct generation gap among voters. Bobi Wine has the most support among young people aged 18 to 35, in which he leads with 53 percent to Museveni’s 43.93. Museveni’s support rises consistently with age groups, increasing to 61 percent among the 46 to 56 age group, and finally peaking with the 57 and up cohort at 72 percent.

The veteran president also leads among female voters in all areas. Female respondents showed 62.27 percent support for Museveni, while 34.09 percent supported Bobi Wine. Male intent to turn out to vote was slightly higher, but preferences followed the national pattern closely.

Key Voter Concerns

Service delivery was found to be the number one issue that will determine voters’ choice at the polls. The proportion of the respondents who selected it as such is 37.06 percent. Youth unemployment follows closely at 32.8 percent while corruption comes at third at 25.9 percent. The issues of security and the rule of law were the least selected determinants of voting by the respondents.

Voter Readiness and Methodology

In terms of the readiness of the voters ahead of polling day scheduled for 15 January 2026 the poll shows that Ugandans are ready to vote. The polls show that more than 80 percent of women and close to 90 percent of the male respondents say they are going to vote.

The poll data was collected only through the method of face-to-face interviews. The target sample of the poll was 4,000 respondents, out of which 3,758 were successfully interviewed. The response rate is 93.95 percent. In terms of the geographical distribution of the respondents, rural areas contributed 60.98 percent of the respondents while urban areas provided 39.02 percent of the respondents.

“The respondents were selected from the 42 districts which were randomly selected from 12 sub regions,” reads the report in parts.   These are Acholi, Ankole, Bukedi, Busoga, Buganda, Bunyoro, Kampala, Karamoja, Kigezi, Lango, Rwenzori and Teso. “The response rate is well above internationally accepted standards for scientific research and well in excess of Roscoe’s (1975) rule of thumb of a sample size between 30 and 500 for social science research,” the DWC report emphasised.

According to this poll, Museveni polls better than Bobi Wine in all 12 but 1. In Bunyoro, Lango, Karamoja, and Ankole, Museveni is ahead of Bobi Wine by double digits polling at 70%, 67.18%, 68.90% and 67.39 respectively. While Bobi Wine polled 28.15, 31.27, 28.98%, and 25.00% respectively. Bobi Wine leads Museveni with Bobi scoring 55.16% against Museveni’s 42.26%.

Other regions include Teso with Museveni at 64.44 against Bobi Wine’s 33.39%, Rwenzori subregion, Museveni polled 54.82 against Mobi Wine’s 41.53%, Kigezi Museveni 59.57% while Bobi polled at 32.18%. In Buganda, Museveni polled 60.00% against Bobi Wine’s 38.14, in Busoga M7 57.19 against Bobi’s 33.54 while in 67.39 for Museveni and 25.00% for Bobi Wine and in Acholi 60.39 for Museveni with Bobi Wine’s score being 35.29%.

Development Watch Centre adds that international response rate guidelines for social science research are well met.

Uganda’s Social Economic Transformation: China Has Proved it’s a Reliable Partner

Posted on By Joshua Kingdom

When credit agencies, banks, insurance companies, etc. based in countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany declared that they would no longer be involved with anything to do with the activities of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) back in 2024 despite their earlier commitments, things looked rather bleak for the project that had captivated the minds of Ugandans going back decades.

Rather than fall for the scare like everyone else however, the government of China elected to stand with Uganda at this critical moment. The then Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry H.E. Xue Bing alongside Beijing’s Ambassador to Kampala H.E. Zhang Lizhong paid a visit to President Museveni carrying a response letter to his request that  China come to Uganda’s rescue. In the document, President Xi Jinping who also doubles as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) expressed “full support” for EACOP and pointed out that if its promise came to fruition, the venture would “enhance socio-economic development for the region”.

What China demonstrated here then was that even with the complications that surrounded this project, the best approach towards the situation was one that sought to harness its potential while minimizing the downsides as opposed to opting for cheap popularity. This is what distinguishes a true partner from actors that look to take advantage of a country’s endowments when they get to know about them provided they can get away with it unscathed.

Indeed, the EACOP picture that has emerged post China’s involvement ably represents Beijing’s sophistication i.e. sustainability queries as well as the fate of project affected persons have been given priority but that has not deterred progress on what the overall endeavor had been expected to realize. As recent as mid-December 2025 thus, water prices in areas such as Kabayoola and Nseese in Sembabule District came down from UGX. 1,000 per jerry can to UGX. 100 thanks to EACOP associated corporate social responsibility campaigns. At the same time, the pipeline construction had generated at least 8,000 jobs and initiated $500 million worth in local procurement by the time it hit the 50% completion point (we are now past 75%) according to the Uganda Chamber of Energy and Minerals. This is to say nothing of the US$1–2.5 annual revenue that the pipeline will bring in once it has been completed of course.

The EACOP initiative though is best understood not as a one-off but as a piece that fits perfectly with a pattern that has characterized China-Uganda interstate affairs for a while. Take the field of infrastructure for which collaboration between the two countries stands on years and years of close ties for instance, and you will find several examples that equally represent this spirit. With Karuma Hydro (a plant first conceived in the late 90s), it was only after the government picked on M/S Synohydro Corporation Limited on top of securing funding from the Export-Import Bank (Yes, previous partners abandoned the venture) that the big dream finally came to see the day of light in 2024. Relatedly, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority has reported that the ongoing expansion at Entebbe International Airport has been enabled by a concessional loan from China that carries minimal interest.

Beijing’s role in Uganda’s Healthcare has been instrumental too. A fitting illustration here is the China-Uganda Friendship Hospital in Naguru which, though initially starting with modest goals, has been at the receiving end of huge donations from the CPC as the demand for its services have grown. This includes a $5 million grant given to the facility through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) a little over a year ago.

China equally rose to the occasion during the 2024/2025 fiscal year when western donors announced that they would be significantly cutting malaria related aid in heavy proportions not least because of the ruckus brought about by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency gimmicks. In that case, Beijing’s embassy in Kampala sourced $1.1 million worth of anti-malaria drugs to fill the gap. To appreciate how much of a big deal this is, one ought to recall that the roughly 100,000 Ugandans that succumb to this sickness each other year mean that we come in seventh place on the list of nations that are worst hit by it worldwide.

There are many other examples that I could pick on to illustrate this further but one more should suffice given what we have already explored. The first half of 2025 saw coffee exportation to China in Uganda multiply by 190% thanks to the zero-tariffs policy entered under FOCAC early in the year. The sum-total of these scenarios then is an ally that has been willing to go through thick-and-thin with Kampala not only through words but vivid real-life incidents that back them just as much.

For Uganda and the current government in particular, one can safely argue that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government has been in position to fulfill most of their promises of mega projects the NRM party is currently partly campaigning on thanks to China’s win-win cooperation with Uganda.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre. 

 

China-Uganda Friendship: A Partnership Driving Economic Growth and Prosperity

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

China’s relationship with Uganda has played an inextricable role in developing our country into one of East and Central Africa’s major manufacturing hubs. Thanks to China’s commitment to invest in Uganda’s industrialisation, our manufacturing capacity now spans several sectors, from electronics to textiles, ceramics to steel, and more – all fuelled by factories and industrial parks set up with the support of Chinese capital and expertise. These industries have created jobs for Uganda’s burgeoning youth demographic, reduced the country’s import dependency, and fostered economic growth. We now have over 50,000 factories employing more than 1.4 million Ugandans, with tens of thousands of workers in Chinese-founded industries, such as Liao Shen and the Sino-Uganda Mbale industrial park.

The bilateral trade between China and Uganda has also been growing by leaps and bounds over the years, with the balance of trade also steadily improving. The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) analysed the dynamics of economic activities between Uganda and China in the last 28 years and established that the exports of Uganda to China have increased at an annualised rate of 25.6%, from $115k in 1995 to $54M in 2022. Additionally, in December 2023, China exported $116M and imported $5.75M from Uganda, making a positive trade balance of $110M. This gradual increase in our exports to China over time is the first promise of a better trade relationship between us, but there is more.

We also cannot overlook the significant influence of the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by President Xi Jinping in 2013 on Uganda’s economic growth and infrastructural transformation.  The BRI is aligned towards enhancing global trade and infrastructure. What spells BRI in Uganda is practically a mega infrastructure project, such as the Entebbe Express Highway, and the sprouting of hundreds of standalone factories and many industrial parks spread across different regions of the country. This has contributed to the expansion of our manufacturing sector, which consequently led to the share of manufacturing to GDP growing from 6.7% in 2000 to 16.5% by 2024, as per Uganda Bureau of Statistics. The broader industrial sector now contributes even more, 27.4%. About 40,000 Ugandans are directly employed in diverse Chinese enterprises, playing an instrumental role in the country’s economic growth.

Industrial parks such as the China-Uganda Liaoshen Industrial Park in Kapeeka, Nakaseke District, have been fundamental in Uganda’s economic transformation. The park’s parent company, Zhang Group, has existed in Uganda for over 20 years, and it brings together several enterprises, including Hash Security, Airang Hotels and Restaurants, Smartec Hisense products and the Liao – Shen industrial park. It has invested over $400 million in the park and created employment for tens of thousands of people.

In the Namanve Industrial Park are ENGO Holdings Limited and SIMI Technologies. These were the first electronics manufacturing plants in Uganda, both spearheaded by Chinese investors. Among the products produced there are mobile phones (feature phones and smartphones), laptops, tablets, chargers, USB cables, earphones, etc. These plants can manufacture about 2,000 feature phones, 1,500 smartphones, and 800 laptops daily, among other products. Although currently these plants have to import some Chinese components, the long-term goal is to have full-scale commercial production employing trained local workers. With time, Uganda shall drastically reduce its reliance on imported electronics by producing enough to meet local demands, including the production of a million computers annually.

Additionally, one of the leading factories manufacturing plastic products and packaging materials for beverages, processed goods, medicines, oils and pesticides is Heng Shang Plastics (Bugolobi, Kampala). This company has contributed to import substitution and improved supply chains since the factory is local, yet many of these goods were previously obtained from China.

Looking specifically at employment, today, more than 500 workers are employed in Unisteel Investment Uganda Limited, a Chinese-backed steel production industry established with a $100 million investment in 2024. Steel manufacturing plays a critical role as the cornerstone of the industry and construction sectors, something very important for Uganda’s development projects.

In the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park, we have over 40 companies doing important work such as assembling smartphones, televisions, weaving textiles, and rolling steel. These companies employ around 10,000 workers daily. These factories/companies are strategically located in Mbale, which is Uganda’s third largest city, and home to millions of people who provide both labour and markets. Being a border city, its location also has the advantages of a well-developed transport network and complete infrastructure. The goods from the factories there can be distributed easily to countries of East Africa, North and South Africa, the Middle East and West Asia.

Through the China-Uganda South-South Cooperation Phase II, Uganda’s food production has been immensely boosted, and the livelihoods of farmers improved. The Government of Uganda identified limited knowledge and skills, trade and investment as the main constraints to its agricultural development and food security, which adversely affected the food and nutrition security and livelihoods of over 70 percent of its population. Since 2015, Uganda, China and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have worked together to support Ugandan small-scale farmers in boosting their production through sustainable technologies, under the FAO-China South-South Cooperation (SSC) Programme. The project has scaled up priorities in developing crop, horticulture, livestock and aquaculture production, as well as introducing new technologies, including renewable energy, agromachinery and improved water harvesting and irrigation methods. China and FAO invested USD 12m (Shs44b) in this project, benefiting more than 9000 farmers. Additionally, China’s agricultural partnership with Uganda can be appreciated through projects like the Kibimba and Doho rice schemes. In the Butaleja district, local farmers attest to benefiting from hybrid rice farming.

China is also a major actor in the transformation of Uganda’s energy sector. It has built the Karuma and Isimba dams, which are key hydropower stations for the electrification of our country. In February 2022, CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Cooperation) became the largest Chinese investment in Uganda with over US$ 4.7 billion. Since then, it has been vigorously participating in helping Uganda establish a sound oil industry system, aiming to create more than 20,000 jobs for Ugandans.

China and Uganda also maintain increasing people-to-people exchanges in fields of health, education and human resources. For instance, since 1983, China has sent 209 medical experts to Uganda and provided free treatment to millions of Ugandans. On the frontier of education, China has, over the years, provided hundreds of degree scholarships and over 5,000 tailor-made training courses to Ugandans in areas of agriculture, medical care, public administration, computer science and infrastructure, among others.

The significance of Uganda’s friendship with China cannot be overstated. This is a relationship we should maintain and promote, because it is to our mutual benefit.

Senior Research Fellow, Development Watch Center, Uganda.

 

 

Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park: Revolutionising Uganda’s Manufacturing Sector

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

Chinese investments have played an inextricable role in Uganda’s emergence as one of East and Central Africa’s major manufacturing hubs. The dividends from the industriousness of Ugandan industries have transformed not just Uganda but also several other countries whose consumer markets depend on Ugandan-manufactured goods, including the DRC and South Sudan, to mention a few. Uganda’s industrial capacity spans several sectors, from electronics to textiles, ceramics to steel, and more – all fuelled by factories and industrial parks set up with the support of Chinese capital and expertise. Not only have these industries created jobs, especially for Uganda’s bulging youth demographic, but they have also reduced the country’s import dependency and fostered economic growth. The country now boasts over 50,000 factories employing more than 1.4 million Ugandans, with tens of thousands of workers in Chinese-founded industries, such as Liao Shen and the Sino-Uganda Mbale industrial park.

Uganda’s manufacturing revolution is closely linked to the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by President Xi Jinping in 2013, because BRI is aligned towards enhancing global trade and infrastructure. What spells BRI in Uganda is practically the sprouting of hundreds of standalone factories and many industrial parks spread across different regions of the country. The success harvested from this has been the expansion of the contribution of the manufacturing sector to our GDP from 6.7% in 2000 to 16.5% by 2024, as per UBOS. The broader industrial sector contributes even more, 27.4%. About 40,000 Ugandans are directly employed in diverse Chinese enterprises, playing an instrumental role in the country’s economic growth.

ENGO Holdings Limited and SIMI Technologies were the first electronics manufacturing plants in Uganda, launched in 2019 in Namanve Industrial Park. The firms behind this factory are ENGO Holdings Limited and SIMI, both spearheaded by Chinese investors. Among the products produced there include mobile phones (feature phones and smartphones), laptops, tablets, chargers, USB cables, earphones, etc. These plants can manufacture about 2,000 feature phones, 1,500 smartphones, and 800 laptops daily, among other products. Although currently these plants have to import some Chinese components, the long-term goal is to have full-scale commercial production employing trained local workers. With time, Uganda shall drastically reduce its reliance on imported electronics by producing enough to meet local demands, including the production of a million computers annually.

One of the leading factories manufacturing plastic products and packaging materials for beverages, processed goods, medicines, oils and pesticides is Heng Shang Plastics (Bugolobi, Kampala). Previously, many of these goods were obtained from China. However, today we have import substitution and reliable local supply chains because the factory is local.

Employment that transforms lives

Over 500 workers are employed in Unisteel Investment Uganda Limited, a Chinese-backed steel production industry established with a $100 million investment in 2024. For a developing country like Uganda, steel plays a critical role as the cornerstone of industry and construction sectors. From its use in manufacturing machinery to providing structural frameworks for infrastructure, it is easy to see the significance of Unisteel’s investment.

Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park is the first national industrial park constructed overseas by Hebei province with the approval of the local government, which is of great significance to the BRI. Hosting over 40 companies producing smartphones, televisions, textiles, and steel, and employing around 10,000 workers daily, the park is one of 22 state-level industrial parks in Uganda, which were proposed by President Museveni and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and constructed by the Tian Tang Group. Mbale City was a very strategic location for this industrial park. It is Uganda’s third largest city, home to millions of people who provide labour and markets, and is also an extremely important border city. Its location also has the advantages of a well-developed transport network and complete infrastructure. Goods from the factories here can be distributed easily to countries of East Africa, North and South Africa, the Middle East and West Asia.

Economic Contributions

Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Company (Uganda) Ltd. is a subsidiary of the Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Group, headquartered in China. The company sits on 1,600 acres of land that is part of the China-Uganda Free Zone at Sukulu. It started operation in October 2018 following a US$62million investment in a bio-organic fertiliser plant, a steel and glass manufacturing plant, a brick baking plant, a steel plant and other related agricultural products. The Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Company (Uganda) Ltd has a 21-year mining lease extendable for 15 years to develop the Uganda-China Free Zone at Sukulu Hills into an industrial complex. Currently, the Chinese-based company is the first to introduce purely organic fertilisers on the Ugandan market, with production standing at over 300,000 metric tonnes per annum. It also produces Sukulu Concrete blocks for construction, with plans to add Sukulu Metal and Sukulu Glass. The company hopes to reduce the Uganda’s expenditure on imports of the industrial sector, which stands at US$377million, US$60 million for fertiliser and US$23 million for glass annually, respectively.

There has been a significant contribution of Chinese investors to the development of Uganda’s industrial capacity. Capital from China has laid a solid foundation for the country to become a manufacturing hub in East and Central Africa. The road to industrialisation and economic self-reliance is now paved. It is up to us to start the journey.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.

 

 

Education is a Corner Stone of China’s Investment to Uganda

Posted on By Joshua Kingdom

“In order to further strengthen the mutual understanding and friendship between the peoples of China and Uganda, and to further enrich the contents of the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership between China and Uganda, the Chinese Embassy in Uganda welcomes citizens of Uganda to apply for the 2025/26 Chinese Government Scholarship.” This statement appeared in a call issued on the Chinese Embassy website in October 2024 and last Friday, the institution fulfilled her word as Ambassador Zhang Lizhong flagged off the successful thirty nine students that will now go on to study at different Universities in China.

These scholarships are an annual programme courtesy of the China Scholarship Council targeted at students who hail from countries other than China (of which Uganda is among) wishing to study at any of the two hundred seventy partner universities. Attaining this opportunity is very prestigious as it comes with a coverage of all tuition, a monthly stipend, plus plane tickets to China as well as for the return journey upon completion of one’s degree. This window is open for those interested in Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate of Philosophy studies.

The arrangement is part of a long standing tradition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) investing in education in Uganda that goes as far back as the 80s. A related contemporary example is the Chinese Embassy Scholarship Project at Makerere University (Mak) that has been awarding checks of UGX. 2,800,000 a semester to learners from across several departments since the 2018/2019 academic year.

Moreover, the Chinese business community in the country has heavily invested in education of Ugandans too. As recent as May this year, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation awarded scholarships to three hundred students in the districts of Hoima and Kikuube at the levels of Primary school, Secondary school, and University in continuation of a corporate social responsibility campaign that it has carried out for more than a decade. The totality of these and more initiatives point to a commitment by PRC to contributing towards real progress in the country for as it is understood in Economics, education is one of the key indicators of economic development.

This owes to the fact that a skilled labour force harnesses the other factors of production in more and more innovative ways. Additionally, an educated populace reinforces conditions that indirectly bring about growth. By earning more for example, a large consumption base emerges which in turn attracts investment thereby creating more jobs. A well-studied country equally guarantees proper service delivery and the advantages that accrue thereto. Take proper healthcare; it helps ensure that people are in good physical and mental conditions hence they become more productive.

What is more, is that China is educating Ugandans in a quality way an attribute necessary for the realization of the outcomes we just listed. As a 2025 World Bank study has indicated, there is a lot of disillusionment especially in developing nations over the fact that the increase in education levels has not translated into improved standards of living as initially envisaged precisely because skills transfer remains a big impediment in the curricula modalities of these countries.

In contrast, obtaining one’s degree in Beijing or any of the locales in China comes with the said ingredient. As a matter of fact, thirty of the Universities that the students going to China study at are ranked among the world’s top five hundred including Tsinghua and Peking that come twelfth and thirteenth per the Times Higher Education rankings. For context, only one Ugandan University (Mak) appears in the world’s first six hundred. But it is not just that the individuals that go to these institutions attain better education, some of them get to pursue cutting-edge courses that are not offered anywhere in Uganda. Two of these are Artificial Intelligence related degrees as well as those concerning the construction of hi-tech bridges.

It is not surprising then that many alumni of these ventures have gone on to contribute significantly to different sectors of our economy upon their return. Indeed, Ambassador Lizhong affirmed that previous beneficiaries of the embassy’s scheme have gone on to become leaders in business, government, and academia among other spheres of influence in his remarks to this year’s batch of scholarship awardees.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.

The Horn of Africa Peace and Development Conference: A nexus between GSI, UN SDG-16 and Economic Prosperity

Posted on By Musiime George

Evidence shows that fragile peace is a significant handicap to prosperity in many parts of the world.  In the horn of Africa, a region where peace has mostly been elusive, the Horn of Africa peace and development conference (HoAPDC) emerges as a link between China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) and the UN SDG-16 on peace, justice and strong institutions. The HoAPDC framework reframes regional stability not as an end but as the engine for broader regional transformation.

Amidst a challenging global environment, China by localizing solutions engages and encourages nations to find collaborative solutions to regional problems as a prerequisite for realizing shared prosperity. First held in Addis Ababa in June 2022, the third edition of the (HoAPDC) was hosted in Kampala at the end of July 2025. A major distinction between this meeting is that it followed the Non-aligned movement (NAM) and was hosted by Uganda- during the country’s chairmanship of the group; especially after solemn commitment were made in regard to security at the last NAM summit. But we might wonder what is special about the Horn of Africa anyway.

The horn of Africa, is a region consisting of several east African countries including Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. The region’s geopolitical significance stems from its strategic placement between; the River Nile, on the interior, both the Red sea and Indian ocean on the exterior but also providing access to the Mediterranean ocean. So, the horn of Africa is not merely a strategic maritime access point to Africa’s interior but also Europe and Asia.

conversely, the region has also been one of Africa’s prime security hot spots over the decades. For instance, today, aside from Al Shabaab being a salient threat in Somalia, there is unrest in Sudan’s Darfur region, simmering ethnic tensions in Ethiopia etc. This exists against a historical backdrop of civil war in Somalia, but also insurgent attacks on development projects exemplified by the tragedy of July 2007 when Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) insurgents attacked the Zhongyuan oil field in Ethiopia resulting into 74 fatalities and the kidnapping of 7 Chinese nationals. Such incidents not only threaten foreign investments but also blight national prospects for prosperity.

Today, China is not only the continent’s biggest trading partner, but also a major source of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) on the continent. Based on this, some analysts for example the Netherlands institute of international relations have advanced the argument about China’s vested interest in extending its global influence and ensuring that its nationals operate in a secure environment. However, African countries- nations of the horn of Africa in this case have an even stronger impetus as the past has proved how disruptive unrest and a lack of security can be to development.

Certainly, China is not standing by to wait for peace to reign over Africa before it can make the decision to cooperate with the continent. Instead as a trailblazer and champions of shared prosperity, China knows from its experience of rapid modernization amidst a stable peaceful environment that peace and security do indeed catalyze development. Undeniably, this idea has existed at the core of the horn of Africa peace and development conference since its inception as noted by former Ethiopian president Teshome Mulatu at the 2022 edition. This time, the message was carried by China’s special envoy to the region Xue Bing as he stressed a need to explore the potential for cooperation, safeguarding common security and deepening exchanges of government experiences.

Viewed as the global security initiative (GSI) in its implementation phase, the HoAPDC is like its parent underpinned by strong commitments to maintaining security in both traditional and nontraditional ways, common comprehensive cooperative sustainable security, and stresses dialogue as the best approach to resolving disputes between nations. The goal of the platform is to find lasting solutions to security challenges of the horn of Africa as an inroad to the overarching goal of shared prosperity. Regional cooperation on peace and security fosters a secure environment- an ingredient for sustained growth in the horn of Africa. In turn the sought sustainable security would have substantial benefits to the global economy as the international crisis group  found in the past that; onboard security experts, insurance, and detours to avoid the horn of Africa in 2010 alone cost the global economy $18 billion.

More importantly, the HoAPDC prescribes a solution to a region that’s considered to be a global security hotspot on account of its assemblage of a high security threat index, geostrategic importance, and ongoing conflicts. Unrest in the Sudan， the Al Shabaab terrorist enterprise in Somalia and the occasional piracy activities continue to have spillover ramifications for the region whether it is by an influx of displaced persons, or jaundiced economic growth. Accordingly, the UN agency for refugees UNHCR operational update March 2025 estimates that between the horn of Africa and the Greatlakes region, upwards of 24.5 million people either live as refugees or in internally displaced people’s (IDP) camps. Therefore, this framework represents more than a practical step towards achieving UN SDG-16. By guaranteeing stability it unlocks both regional economic activity and trade which in turn form a reliable launch pad for regional economic growth as a pathway to shared prosperity.

In a global environment characterized by a superfluity of security and economic challenges, the horn of Africa peace and development conference is a step on a continuum of China’s steadfast march towards its vision of building a global community of shared future for mankind. Through such frameworks, historically unstable regions like the horn of Africa are inspired to engage in constructive dialogue to find localized solutions to regional challenges. And these solutions, by limiting outside interference are more likely guarantee  win-win outcomes.

The writer is a research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.  

 

Lessons from China’s Agricultural Revolution for Uganda’s Rural Transformation

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

As a late-developing country, there are remarkable lessons Uganda can draw from China’s transformative journey in alleviating widespread poverty and modernising agriculture. Over the last four decades, China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty, a feat unparalleled in history. Part of the strategy through which this rapid and broad transformation was achieved came via agricultural modernisation and well-targeted poverty alleviation schemes. In Uganda, we still have a majorly agrarian-based economy, with over 70% of the population earning a livelihood from agricultural production. Even then, only 23.7% of the GDP of the country comes from agriculture, with services and industry contributing the rest. This underperformance by agriculture is mainly due to the use of backward farming methods, which subsequently lead to low productivity, which problem China overcame, and can thus provide compelling lessons.

Conceived in 1978 and established in 1982, the Household Responsibility System (HRS) is the current arable land system in rural China, and is highlighted as the foundation of China’s agricultural modernisation. Its major contribution was that it incentivised farmers by granting them long-term user rights on land, which led to increased productivity. This saw an 8.2% annual growth registered from 1978 to 1984, thus causing a significant improvement in the incomes of rural dwellers. Besides this, China managed to develop high-yield varieties of crops by investing immensely in mechanisation and agricultural research and design (R&D). While Uganda’s rate of agricultural mechanisation stands at around 10%, China ranks at 72%, which explains its high yields. And whereas China invests about 5% of its agricultural GDP on R&D, Uganda spends less than 1%.

Farmers usually make big post-harvest losses because they do not have access to secure storage facilities and are disconnected from markets due to dilapidated rural roads. China, therefore, invested heavily in developing rural infrastructure, which reduced post-harvest losses and connected farmers to markets. Today, even the remotest areas have access to markets, and food production has seen significant improvement and stability. As early as 2018, roads had been paved in 98% of China’s villages. The internet age also opened opportunities for farmers to practice digital agriculture through mobile apps, which link them directly to consumers, hence increasing profits by cutting out predatory middlemen from the trade loop.

In 2013, China began the serious implementation of programs directed towards poverty alleviation. They used a multifaceted strategy, combining well-curated projects of agricultural modernisation with targeted interventions in key areas. Poor households were carefully selected by authorities, and solutions tailored to their needs and challenges were applied. Some communities got a fiscal push through microcredit injected into their businesses, while others received vocational training to skill them for productive enterprises. Other highly disadvantaged communities were relocated to areas with more economically viable employment opportunities. Thus, by 2020, over 9.6 million people had been relocated by the Chinese government to areas with better access to services from their previous settlements, where living conditions were inhospitable and economically backwards. Since rural areas often suffer structural barriers to progress, such as poor healthcare and dysfunctional educational infrastructure, the Chinese government also invested in rural education and healthcare to increase school attendance and literacy rates.

The strategies employed by Uganda’s government have so far not succeeded in alleviating poverty or transforming agriculture. From NAADS to OWC, and recently PDM, change seems to happen only in the vocabulary of government programs, not the conditions of those targeted. We still have 21% of the population surviving below the international poverty line, most of whom are part of the 80% rural residing population of the country. Uganda’s farmers remain mostly peasant and dependent on the probabilities of nature, like rain-fed agriculture, for economic survival.

One of the main obstacles preventing wide-scale commercial agriculture in Uganda is the complex land tenure system, which divides land into customary, freehold, leasehold and Mailo land systems. This mix has rendered insecurity and land disputes commonplace, thus not only hindering business but also tying down capital in court battles due to the countless suits registered over land annually. China’s HRS system, where land is state-owned, can be a good model for Uganda to benchmark reform. Pilot projects can be launched whereby farmers are given long-term user rights over large parcels of land to try out technologically advanced farming methods for improved productivity.

We cannot hope to have transformation when only 20% of rural roads are paved. The government must invest in transport infrastructure linking productive agricultural hubs to markets in urban centers. We also must have food processing factories to add value to our harvests and export to the international market. But roads and railway lines are simply hard infrastructure. We must also invest and harness soft infrastructure like the internet, because e-commerce platforms are key in revolutionising market access for farmers, as happened in China.

All this must be done while paying attention to Uganda’s unique political and economic context, since factors like Uganda’s highly heterogeneous ethnic spread can demand attention for localised approaches to poverty alleviation programs and land reforms.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Center.

Learning from China: Adapting Development Strategies for African Contexts

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

Although it may not be possible to have a comprehensive cookbook of China’s rapid development recipes, a few policy frameworks implemented in the country can provide guidance. The Chinese development model has not been uniform. It has been at every stage punctuated by state-led industrialisation alongside export-oriented growth, and strategic global engagement, among other factors/ policies. Africa sets its sights on China for direction, as a late developer, because China has mastered the art of leapfrogging growth or catching up. However, given the disparate and diverse political and economic characteristics between the two entities, we need to carefully tailor and adapt what works and leave what doesn’t, from the Chinese blueprint of late and rapid development.

There is a unique political economy framework that made China’s development success possible. Whereas Deng Xiaoping is highly credited for instituting transformative reforms, there was a strong, centralised state which he leveraged to implement pragmatic policies, i.e., special economic zones (SEZs), massive infrastructure investment, and education and technical training to spur human capital development. Deng was also granted a monopoly of power rendered by the Communist Party, which allowed him to have continuity of his policies under the stability of a cohesive political structure. It was also workable to implement policies on a largely ethnically homogenous population, with a social history of collective discipline embedded in Confucian cultural ideas. Such moral compulsion from social norms and habits can hardly be transplanted, but it facilitated the rapid policy implementation we see in China. Additionally, industrial transformation was timely in a nation which was poised to reform its large agrarian economy.

African nations emerged out of colonialism with significant infrastructure gaps. The post-colonial contexts they find themselves in require that they assert economic sovereignty and push for state-led development, which fits well with the Chinese model. It has, indeed, been China at the frontline of supporting Africa’s move to bridge infrastructure gaps, supporting such projects as Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway and Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, under the BRI, among countless other projects in several African countries. Moreover, China never lends itself to political interference in Africa as a precondition for its investments, as is common with Western aid and development finance, which comes pegged with prescriptions and conditionalities of all manner, eroding away the autonomy and agency of African states.

The diversity among and within the 54 African nations, however, implies that the continent’s political economy is widely different from China’s. We have so many ethnicities, are corrupted by colonial legacies, plagued by electoral volatility undermining policy continuity, fragmented by opposing governance structures, which ultimately complicates state-led development initiatives.

Weak institutionality and corruption are a serious hindrance to Africa’s development efforts. Weak institutions make China’s state-led, long-term development strategies hard to replicate, because governments face significant opposition and illegitimacy, making the long-term stability that shelters growth absent. Corruption disorients public-spiritedness, turning ruling regimes into cash-and-carry kleptocracies. This is the challenge for countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo, making the implementation of large-scale projects unsuccessful. There is a need to earn legitimacy for African governments by ensuring merit-based and accountable governance that serves all citizens without accentuating ethnic differences. Traditional leaders should also not be merely co-opted but fundamentally involved in local and national development programs, so that they view state development policies as an inter-collective program in which they and their co-ethnics have a stake, and must therefore take responsibility and involvement.

While China’s development leveraged export-led growth to satisfy the global demand for manufactured goods, Africa finds itself in a different context. It is a resource-dependent continent; its economies survive on the extraction and sale of primary commodities like minerals, oil, or agricultural products. The key to transforming this status quo to increase returns rests in domesticating ownership and ensuring the locals have a higher stake in the businesses and industries. This will nip profit repatriation and rent-seeking in the bud. Local ownership here does not mean that indigenous people must be the only ones with economic rights, but rather that even companies owned by foreigners must register locally and transfer the most profitable work of their business to Africa.

Whereas China’s development was easy to mobilise in a socially cohesive population, Africa’s ethnic diversity should not be mourned as a challenge; rather, African governments should embrace traditional and communal participatory approaches to social mobilisation towards development goals. Africa’s ethnic groups were historically assimilationist, and this cultural heritage must be encouraged as opposed to perpetuating colonial divisions that politicised divisive ethnicity.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Centre.

 

 

 

Austria’s Role in Uganda’s Development and Humanitarian Response

Posted on By Nnanda Kizito Sseruwagi

Neither geographical distance nor cultural diversity has limited the connection between Austria and Uganda. Over the years, the two countries have developed a relationship through cooperation in development, cultural exchange, diplomatic engagements, and initiatives related to humanitarian causes, among other areas. The bilateral ties between the two countries have been significantly bolstered over the years. Austria has provided immense development aid to Uganda since it first established relations. Let us examine the development relations, diplomatic ties and cultural exchanges between Austria and Uganda.

It was during Uganda’s political upheavals of the 1980s that Austria-Uganda ties were first knotted. At the time, the country was experiencing a war against the government of Milton Obote (Obote II). During the wanton human rights violations and economic difficulties that had taken over the country, several Ugandans found haven in Austria. Among those were compatriots of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who would himself visit Austria in 1985, when he was leader of the NRA. This guerrilla army later captured power and liberated the country in 1986. The “Platform Austria-Uganda,” established in 1986, was one of the initial dialogue and collaboration platforms between the two nations. Later, in 2003, the initiators of the platform founded the “Austro-Ugandan Friendship Society” to increase the interest in Uganda through common events, information, and to support projects in Uganda.

In 2012, Austria transferred Uganda to the jurisdiction of the Austrian Embassy in Addis Ababa. Most of the bilateral relations between the countries are focused on development cooperation. Austria is also actively involved in the political dialogue with Uganda in the EU context, alongside other donor countries from Europe. Both Vienna and Kampala host very active Honorary Consulates. However, since 2015, the AußenwirtschaftsCenter in Nairobi has been responsible for Uganda and the countries on the Horn of Africa.

Comparatively observing, Uganda ranks higher than most African countries in the levels of commitment to development policy, which the country gets from Austria. One can say that Austrians are fond of Ugandans, since Ugandan artists have regularly performed in Austria over the years. Austria also occasionally participates in the programme of the EU’s Europe Day, the Bayimba International Festival of the Arts or the Euro-African Film Festival. Uganda’s biggest cultural center, the famous Ndere Center, was opened in 2007 with large Austrian generosity, and serves as the pivot around which Ugandan music, performance, and culture revolve.

Uganda has been a focal point of the Austrian development cooperation since 1993. Since 1991, the Coordination Office of the Austrian Development Cooperation in Kampala has been responsible for coordinating programmes and projects in the country. The field office’s work is focused on water supply management, community hygiene, justice, law and peace in the North of the country.

The Austrian development cooperation in Uganda does a lot of social work in Uganda. Recently, it supported the training of over 200 vocational studies students at the Nakawa Vocational Training College under the Water & Sanitation for Refugees & Hosts (GIZWatSSUP) project. WatSSUP is a Water Supply and Sanitation for Refugee Settlements and Host Communities in Northern Uganda.

The Austrian Development Agency (ADA) is a big funder of this project. Austrian partners recognise that Uganda plays a central role in managing Africa’s refugee crisis, since we host more refugees (1.9 million) than any other African country. Therefore, we are a pilot country for implementing the United Nations’ refugee support measures. Uganda’s Integrated Water and Environment Refugee Response Plan (WESRRP) regulates the long-term supply of water and sanitation services to refugee settlements and host communities. While humanitarian organisations largely offer short-term solutions, WESRRP facilitates the transition to the long-term provision of services by national institutions, and Austria is at the helm of supporting this.

Working with local Think Tanks and Civil Society Organisations, Austria is also keen to address governance challenges in Uganda and other East African countries. Some of the beneficiaries from Austrian support in this endeavour are organisations like Kituo Cha Katiba, an NGO that addresses the problem of governments in East Africa not respecting their constitutions, which leads to gross human rights violations, marginalisation, among other challenges. Austria also shares a strategic partnership with the World Food Programme on ensuring food and nutritional security as well as livelihood interventions for refugees in Uganda.

Uganda’s Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS), which includes about 17 institutions with closely linked mandates of administering justice, maintaining law and order and human rights, to developing a common vision, policy framework, unified objectives and plan over the medium term (e.g. Ministry of Justice, Judiciary, Police, Prisons, Human Rights Commission, etc.), is also significantly supported by Austria. The Austrian Development Cooperation’s support to JLOS is grounded in the ADC-Uganda Country Strategy (2010 – 2015) under which 3 strategic areas of intervention in Uganda are highlighted, i.e., access to justice, mainstreaming of gender and human rights standards in the administration and delivery of justice and promotion of alternative conflict resolution and reconciliation mechanisms.

After years of cooperation, the future looks bright for the continued bilateral ties between Austria in Uganda. The enduring relationship between the two nations should, however, involve more people-to-people exchanges, in order to learn more about each other and deepen our bonds. But still, the robust partnership we share transcends geographical space and cultural diversity.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Development Watch Center.