The Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Hon. Sanjay Tanna has directed Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to step up their performance and wipe out Ugandan market of substandard products.
Uganda loses an estimated UGX 6 trillion every year to counterfeit and substandard products. According to the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), over half (roughly 54%) of all goods circulating on the open market are fake or non-compliant, heavily damaging local industry, agriculture, public health, and government revenue collection
The entry of substandard and counterfeit products into the Ugandan market remains a major challenge, driven by porous borders, cargo misdeclaration, and smuggling through ungazetted entry points.
The Minister also wants UNBS to support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to easily access product certification services.
Small and medium enterprises are the backbone of Uganda’s economy. They make up about 90% of the private sector, provide jobs for millions of people, and contribute roughly 20% to the national gross domestic product (GDP
The directive was issued during a meeting that Hon. Tanna together with the Minister of State for Trade Hon. Gen. Wilson Mbasu Mbadi held with the members of the 10th National Standards Council at the Ministry of Trade premises in Kampala.
The meeting is one of the initiatives by Hon. Tanna to streamline the operations and improve efficiency in all the government agencies that are under his ministry.During the meeting, the Chairperson of the National Standards Council Eng. James Kalibbala informed the ministers that during the one year the Council has spent in office, they have managed to handle the backlog that they inherited from the previous leadership, increasing the number of enterprises certified by UNBS from 501 to 1,270, and the staffing of the bureau.
“During the year, the budget for the Bureau increased from Ugx 62 to Ugx 130 in the financial year 2025/26 which helped us to accomplish a number of deliverables including the development of 551 new standards, recruitment of additional 100 staff among others”, said Eng. Kalibbala
He however, noted that there is a lot that UNBS needs to do to improve service delivery and be impactful.
The Executive Director UNBS Eng. James Kasigwa informed the meeting that in the past one year, the Council oversaw the launch of UNBS’ fifth 5-year Strategic Plan for FY 2025/26 – FY 2029/30 which aligns with Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDPIV) and targets the national Ten-fold Economic Growth Strategy through import substitution and export promotion.
Eng. Kasigwa noted that the bureau still faces a number of challenges including staffing and funding gaps saying, currently Uganda has over 200 official and informal border points. However, with the staffing and funding gaps, the bureau is able to deploy staff at only 34 points across the country.
Minister Tanna told the National Standards Council that he had received a number of complaints especially from SMEs and the big manufacturers on the performance of UNBS with many citing the delays in the certification of their products and import clearance at the borders.
“I task the National Standards Council to refocus and put more emphasis on supporting the growing enterprises especially the Small and Medium Enterprises, by reducing the time that they take to acquire the Quality Mark, preferably a maximum of two weeks. That way Ugandans will feel the impact of the standards body”, said Tanna
The minister added that UNBS is a big anchor to achieving Uganda’s goal of expanding the economy from roughly $50 billion to $500 billion by 2040, the reason why the bureau should change the way they operate, do the right things and be practical.
Tanna pledged his full support to UNBS in achieving its mandate of ensuring the safety of products consumed by Ugandans, supporting industrialization and facilitating trade.
Gen. Mbadi emphasized the need for UNBS to improve efficiency saying the government has secured markets for Ugandan products but many have failed to access those markets because of failure to meet the required standards in those markets. He also cautioned the bureau to avoid policing SMEs on certification but instead teach, advise, and guide them.
