By Chris Muhizi for MCN.
President Museveni has announced a ban on the importation of used clothing ,considering that new clothing is being produced in Uganda’s textile industries, this is in an effort to encourage people to buy new clothing instead. Additionally, he ordered that electrical cables and meters should only be purchased from factories in Uganda starting on September 1 of this year, and that there would no longer be any importation of these items. 16 enterprises in the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park were officially opened with remarks from President Museveni. During the occasion, nine new factories also broke ground.
Uganda has a history of importing a lot of worn clothes, which some consumers like because it is more affordable, similar to many African nations.
Uganda’s potential to move up the cotton and textile value chain, according to local manufacturers, is threatened by the dumping of second-hand clothing that floods the market.
“They’re for the dead. “When a White person dies out, their belongings are collected and sent to Africa,” Museveni stated on Friday.
A British charity called Oxfam claims that at least 70% of clothing items donated to charities in Europe and the United States wind up in Africa.
Museveni said at the groundbreaking of nine plants in the Sino-Uganda Mbale Industrial Park in Mbale city, “We have people here who produce new clothes but they cannot infiltrate the market.”
Different African countries are making these decisions for banning second hand clothes just like Rwanda in 2018.
President Museveni has been devoted to industrialize Uganda so that it can be a stable and reliant country in different mechanisms working together to the nations development.
