By Jumah Kakom
The Opposition Democratic (DP) Party has urged all stakeholders to unite and address the proposed merger of the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) which is now one of the most trending issues in the country.
The call was made on Tuesday at Kampala by the acting party spokesperson Ismeal Kirya who emphasized the importance of collaboration and open dialogue to ensure the best possible outcome for Uganda’s coffee industry.
The parliament had been with a lot of tensions between members of parliament when the government was on the move to rationalize the government agencies. Among the agencies to be taken back to their ministries is the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), and this has raised a lot of Debate in both public and leaders.
Kirya says the UCDA has been instrumental in promoting and regulating Uganda’s coffee sector, contributing significantly to the country’s economy. With the proposed merger, stakeholders are concerned about the potential impact on the industry.
Kirya says, as Democratic Party, the initiative of government’s move to merge its agencies is good but it should be handled carefully and in phases and by doing so, Uganda’s coffee industry can continue to thrive and contribute to the country’s economic
“We expect the government to first analyze the objectives why it created these agencies and assess each entity how it has performed according to the set objectives. We do agree agencies need to be rationalized but not all agencies need it. Otherwise we may shoot ourselves in the foot if we rush this process, on the side of UCDA, we have like 12 million Ugandans who grow Coffee in Uganda, don’t these farmers require a consultation on the performance of UCDA, and are they complaining on its performance,” Kirya stated.
According to Kirya, last year UCDA was even given a target of 45B and it got over 80B shillings, asking what the government basis of removing such agency is?
He adds that one of the reasons to take UCDA to the ministry of Agriculture is to register farmers, but this has been done by the Authority a long time ago stressing that the Ministry doesn’t have the capacity to oversee the Coffee farmers.
“The Democratic party calls upon all the stakeholders to come together on the issue of UCDA to challenge it at whatever level in their capacity because the issue of coffee in Uganda is not for a particular ethnic group, cultural institution, region, but it’s for all Ugandans,”Kirya said.
