Uganda: Over 500 Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises Granted Free Product Certification

20 October 2022
Nile Post (Kampala)
By Muhamadi Matovu

Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) with support from the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU) has granted free product certification (Q-Mark) to over 500 Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) who are producing over 700 products across various sectors.

This initiative is part of the Covid-19 Economic Recovery and Resilience Response Program (CERRRP) funded by the Mastercard Foundation under the quality and standards component.

The minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Francis Mwebesa thanked PSFU for complementing the government's effort of reducing the cost of doing business by funding the over 500 MSMEs.

He appreciated the intervention of improving the quality of locally made products so that they can be competitive on the market, especially for export markets.

He pledged continued government support to the private sector who are key Partners contributing to economic development and transformation of the country.

David Livingstone Ebiru, the executive director of UNBS, this is part of their interventions to subsidise the cost of product certification as one of the measures to improve the safety and quality of locally manufactured products and increase their access to both domestic and international markets.

Ebiru reiterated the need for a special fund to support MSMEs to certify their products for the initial year so that they can meet the minimum safety and quality standards required to access the Markets.

He appealed to enterprises involved in any form of manufacturing and production to formalise their businesses and operate in an open environment in order to benefit from available interventions aimed at supporting them to improve the quality of their products.

He urged the start-up MSMEs to focus on production of one product at a time in order to effectively manage their quality and optimize the cost of certification.

The beneficiary enterprises have been granted UNBS Q-Mark permits for the initial 1st year and are expected to sustain payment for subsequent renewals of these Permits thereafter.

Steven Asiimwe, the executive director of PSFU, assured the MSMEs of the emerging markets within the region and beyond which can absorb most of the Ugandan made products so long as they can meet the required quality and quantity

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