BUBU needs what? – “An Answer”
Introduction.
Buy Uganda Build Uganda.
BUBU Policy is an economic Cum Patriotic policy for which H.E The President of Uganda deserves our gratitude.
BUBU can be a game changer for Uganda, if all its stakeholders are honest to themselves for its implementation & removing the hurdles observed during its implementation journey.
Consumers, i.e. the common people & leaders are Biggest & most important stakeholders of BUBU’s success. Apart from consumers, Community Leaders have an Important role, in the journey of BUBU.
Journey of Amendment.
From time immemorial, the modification or the amendment of any policy or Act is a key for its success. The first amendment for the BUBU Guidelines was brought, with the support of H.E the President of Uganda, where BUBU supplier definition was amended to include Local Manufacturing companies, among citizen of Uganda as the eligible suppliers.
The next very important Amendment, which is pending is to amend again, the definition of BUBU Supplier.
The test of BUBU supplier should be “where the goods are manufactured and not, who is supplying it”
MDA’s are currently issuing LPO’s to many locally registered companies, portraying that BUBU is complied, when in reality these locally registered companies are importing 100% of those products.
For Example: Sourcing of Primary and Secondary Text Books among others.
This loop hole in BUBU definition needs an amendment.
The recently passed Local content bill by the Parliament of Uganda, is another great step in this journey.
Consumer
The biggest challenge in the success of BUBU is the ultimate consumer.
The common man within the Private Sector or Public Sector are the consumers within the society.
It is the consumer at the end, who will decide, on what they want to consume.
Consumers needs to change their mindset & support BUBU by adopting & consuming Ugandan made products.
Quality, Taste and price are some of the issues that could be a challenge for the consumers in the initial period, but once the consumers demand is picked, Quality, taste & price, all will be improved.
Public and Private Sector enterprises, also need to be educated & motivated to consume possible locally produced Raw materials or locally made consumables, at their work place as much as possible.
Public and Private enterprises, need to be made partners of BUBU through various Legal methods.
Excuses for failure of BUBU.
Some common excuse which is being embraced by Government entities for going away from BUBU is the term called “Security”.
Local manufacturers or local Indigenous people are considered as point of leakage and thus Manufacturers based outside Uganda, are given the chance.
For Example: Ballot paper printing.
We need to trust our own people & we need to train them to avoid such chances of leakages. Also, strict guidelines & legal penalties can be part of the contract, to answer this security aspect of doing things locally.
For products like Transcript, Passing Certificate and Results slip for UNEB and Universities, outside suppliers have wrongly convinced MDA’s to keep some security features in their products which are irrelevant. Their aim is to keep local suppliers out of Race.
The second most Excuse, we hear from Government entities is high price.
Government needs to support BUBU, even if local producer’s prices are high, because at the end it supports the bigger picture of Ugandan economy, by saving foreign Exchange, by local employment generation and by capacity building.
The BUBU Guidelines or local content Act should take care of this, price excuse suitably.
Quality & capacity are another set of flags raised by Government entities, in the matters of supporting BUBU Suppliers.
Government, if it gives a zone of comfort to purchase locally then, Manufacturers will develop the capacity, if it is lacking. No investor will invest without the commitment from the Government of buying locally. Hence, there is need of, proper dialogue between Government & Private sector.
Regarding Quality also, both Government & private sector need to come to an agreement for mutually acceptable solution, to this Excuse of quality but of course Quality needs to be improved eventually.
Recently in Newspaper, we saw a directive from H.E The president of Uganda to print locally, the currency, Ballot papers & other such high security printing material. This was a very welcome initiative
BUBU- # An Economic Fight against Covid-19
BUBU can save a huge foreign exchange for the country & can generate, also additional employment which is a need of the hour.
In Today’s time Uganda is suffering from unemployment and BUBU is a perfect answer to it.
By way of saving foreign exchange, even the devaluation of Uganda shilling can be reduced or stopped completely
Way Forward.
PPDA
- Redefine the definition of BUBU suppliers i.e. The requirement of a BUBU supplier should be, “where the goods are manufactured and not who is supplying the goods”
- Excuses of security, capacity, Quality and price brought by various MDA’s need to be eliminated by enacting appropriate Guidelines.
- PPDA & Private sector need to have a dialogue & agree on a list of goods or services, for which importation need to be discouraged through Tariff & Non- Tariff Barriers.
Consumers.
- Leaders need to lead the consumers by example and promote Patriotism to its peak.
(Rajesh Chaplot)
(The Writer is A General Manager of Graphic Systems (U) Limited, Award winner for Pravasi Bhartiya Samman in 2009 being awarded by the President of India and also received the Golden Jubilee award in 2020 which is the Highest Civilian Award from H.E The President of Uganda.)
Rajesh Chaplot 