Turkish Investors Express Interest in Uganda’s Manufacturing Sector

The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga met with investors from Turkey who expressed interest in the manufacturing sector in Uganda, looking at sourcing raw materials from the agriculture and mineral sectors.

“Investors from Turkey have visited,” the speaker announced Friday via Twitter.

“Led by their Ambassador to Uganda, Kerem Alp, they're exploring opportunities in agro-processing & cement manufacture.”

Kadaga says she urged the investors “to help us enhance value addition of our crops [and] machines which can turn sugarcane into syrups [and] paper.”

When the Speaker met the Turkish ambassador in October of last year, he ask him to facilitate the strengthening of trade and education ties between Uganda and Turkey. Uganda mainly exports mineral fuels, grains, vegetables, cotton, fish, raw hides and skins, and flowers to Turkey while Turkey supplies plastics, machinery, furniture, iron and steel, milling products, electronics, and so on.

The trade volume between Uganda and Turkey currently stands at $40 million.

Recent reports have shown an uptick in trade ties between the countries, with the number of visa applications to Turkey doubling in 2019 compared to 2018, and tripling in the first two months of 2020, according to Kerem Alp.