President Museveni has warned Ugandans against buying and using imported second-hand clothes termed mivumba. According to President Museveni, such clothes are gathered from Europeans who have died.
"They are for dead people. When a white person dies, their clothes are dumped. I do not know which person gathers their clothes and sends them to Africa. We should stop wearing them," Museveni said.
"We have people here who produce new clothes but they cannot infiltrate the market because the second-hand clothes are already all over."
Museveni made the statements while commissioning 15 factories at Sino-Mbale Industrial Park in Mbale District yesterday. He also broke ground for 9 other factories at the same park.
"These investors have spectacles that enable them to detect where there's money. It's upon us to provide a conducive environment that enables whoever wants to invest to come. That is our role," Museveni said.
"With a proper policy, everything does itself, that is why a person you least know about approaches you that they want to set up a textile factory. They do this because they know Ugandans must dress up and they have the required raw materials here needed to produce clothes. Then that's how government comes in to catalyse the process by providing electricity, peace, roads and other needed infrastructure," he added.
The President further thanked the NRM members who understand and support the vision and strategy of the party which has proved to be fruitful. He also commended the friends of Uganda especially the Chinese who have been working on mutual understanding and cooperation with the East African country and Africa since 1949.
The President also condemned some countries which are trying to curtail the market of Ugandan products. He assured the stakeholders that that move would be hard to achieve by the critics because "Our products are of good quality and at relatively low prices".
He also assured industrialists that the challenge of electricity will soon be history since the government is currently solving the issue.
"Otherwise, electricity is enough and we are building more dams. We are also going to construct a water channel to deal with the problem of floods that affected us last time. We are also producing more fire brigade machinery for this industrial park and helping the industrial park with the infrastructure.
