Mwine Mpaka, the Chairperson of Parliament’s trade committee
Parliament has approved the merger of Uganda Export promotions board and Uganda Free zones authority into one entity called the Uganda Free zones and Export Promotion Authority.
The minister of state for industries David Bahati while introducing the bills for second reading informed MPs that the merger will enable the government to meet its target of increasing its exports.
The chairperson of the parliament’s trade committee Mwine Mpaka has informed parliament that the merger will facilitate effective and efficient service delivery by clearly delineating the functions and mandates of the two agencies, thereby avoiding duplication of mandates which is one of the objectives of the merger.
Mpaka has also revealed that the cost of repealing the Uganda export promotion board will be 289 million shillings in form of terminal benefits for staff to be laid off and says the government will be able to save 6.2 billion shillings in the first year and the savings will later increase to 6.5 billion shillings.
Parliament has also approved the merger of the Uganda warehouse receipt system Authority back to the ministry of trade as a department in the ministry.
The chairperson of parliaments trade committee informed parliament that there would be no costs accrued by government as a result of mainstreaming the authority and says that this would attract further investments in the agriculture sector by providing assurance to financiers that there are mechanisms in place to mitigate risks associated with lending to farmers and traders.
