Kampala — Although the total value added during 2009/10 was 21trillion, businesses in Kampala accounted for only 45% down from 63% in 2000/01, the Uganda Business Inquiry (UBI) report released last week has shown.

The key findings from the report released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) also show that manufacturing has over taken trade in terms of value added in the formal sector whereas wholesale and retail trade characterized the informal sector.

An interesting finding was that whereas the Northern region accounted for only 4% of the total value added, 55% of the total employees in that region were female.

Announcing the key findings of the report, Ms. Imelda Atai Musana, the Business and Industry Statistics Director at UBOS said that there were nearly 2 million businesses, 79% of them are informal while 21% are formal.

"Kampala has the highest number of formal businesses but the total value added has reduced. A likely reason is that other regions are also developing and businesses are moving away from Kampala," she said.

The Western region according to the report showed the lowest value added of only 1% since the last comprehensive study done close to a decade ago.

"There seems to be a big problem in the west because they added value from12% to 13%. We shall conduct another study to ascertain the issues in that area," Ms. Musana said.

Musana also noted that a total of over 457,000 businesses with fixed locations had been registered country wide.

She says this is an increase of 297,000 business recorded since the last census held in 2001/2002.

The report also further indicates that the informal sector accounts for 35% of the total value added. The report released by the statistics body was the third comprehensive UBI study after the one conducted in 1990/91 for the reference period 1989 and the second one in 2003 for the reference period 2000/01.