By Mary Karugaba
The Government’s stand on rationalization, particularly the controversial transfer of Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries still stands, government Chief Whip has said.
Briefing journalists on the matter at Parliament, Denis Obua said the position of government both agreed in Cabinet and in the NRM Caucus meeting with President Yoweri Museveni still stands.
“We support the presentation and passing into law the rationalization bills providing for a three-year transition period for UCDA and National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U).
“I also wish to remind you that the Parliamentary NRM Caucus exhaustively discussed the rationalization of government agencies in four meetings of which three were substantive and one was a mini-meeting where three committees of Parliament had an engagement with the President and it was agreed that UCDA be given a three-year transition period before its merged. That is the position,” Obua said
Ugandans, he added should not resist the merging of UCDA, because the government will mainly mainstream the functions being exercised by UCDA under the Act into the mainstream ministry of agriculture by creating a department which will continue to perform the exact functions currently being done by UCDA.
“I think the problem right now is the fear of the unknown. We have taken time to consult on this matter since 2021. Change is always resisted but it will have to happen,” he added.
Obua was responding to journalist’s questions on whether there’s a possibility of government withdrawing the bill given the countrywide outcry on the matter.
He said the NRM The National Coffee (Amendment) Bill 2024 has moved to the committee stage, where each clause will be scrutinized, debated, and either approved, amended, or rejected by majority vote while preserving the bill’s core principles.
Speaker of Parliament Annet Anita Among last week adjourned Parliament after the House voted to proceed with the contentious bill to the Committee stage.
The voting on the bill marked the end of a heated clash, during which opposition lawmakers mounted a vigorous resistance.
Authority (UCDA) was established in 1991 by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority Act, Cap. 325 which was repealed and replaced with the National Coffee Act No. 17 of 2021.
Apparently, the body is charged with regulating both ‘on-farm’ and ‘off-farm’ activities in the coffee value chain.
However, Asinansi Nyakato (Hoima City, FDC) and Dr Abed Bwanika (Kimaanya-Kabonera, NUP), the movers of two minority reports, have criticized the move, deeming it ill-conceived.
These argued that the UCDA has been instrumental in steering Uganda’s coffee industry to its current level of success and fear that dismantling the authority will undermine progress.
Uganda is currently one of Africa’s top coffee exporters with revenue earnings rising from $883.3 million (sh3.26 trillion) to $952.24 million (sh3.57 trillion) from November 2021 to October 2022.
Uganda recorded its highest coffee exports of 6.26 million tonnes of 60-kg bags in 2O21/2O22 from 5.83 million tonnes of 60kg bags the previous year.
At the moment, the Government of Uganda has set an ambitious target of producing 20 million-60kg bags of coffee by 2030 as per the Coffee Roadmap.
To achieve this, UCDA has distributed 545,475,098 coffee seedlings during the last five years, benefitting 937,605 farmers. This is likely to increase production from the current 8.16 million 60-kg bags in 2022/2023 to 13.7 million 60-kg bags in four years’ time.
Obua said the NRM is ready to proceed with the remaining 8 bills under the overall resolution and appealed to those who are against the bill to raise the substantive issues.
“We are not going to debate based on emotions, or sentiments. We are going to debate based on issues. You are talking about membership, accreditation, this is the kind of intellectual debate that the Parliament of Uganda must get itself involved into. This high cost of administering agencies, we would rather mainstream them under public service salaries such that whatever savings we have can go into service delivery,” he said.
