The Regional Director for the East African Region at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Humphrey Nwugo, on Thursday paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Sanjay Tanna, at his office in Kampala to explore opportunities for enhancing collaboration in advancing Uganda’s trade, industrialisation, and export development agenda.

During the meeting, Nwugo reaffirmed Afreximbank’s commitment to support intra-African trade, industrialisation, export development, and investment across the East African region.

Minister Tanna highlighted Uganda’s vast investment opportunities under the Tenfold Growth Strategy (ATMS), emphasising the need for affordable long-term financing for strategic infrastructure, including Special Economic Zones (SEZs), industrial parks, modern plug-and-play industrial infrastructure, and transport set-up.

The discussions also explored potential collaboration on flagship ATMS projects, particularly the development of Special Economic Zones in Buwaya, Mubende and Kumi, with a view to accelerating industrialisation, attracting investment, creating jobs, expanding exports and enhancing Uganda’s competitiveness in regional and continental markets.

“We would like Afreximbank to support us in investment in transport corridors and logistics infrastructure to strengthen regional connectivity, reduce the cost of doing business, facilitate intra-African trade, and integrate Uganda into regional value chains,” Tanna said.

He added that Uganda has a huge market for products such as coffee, honey and tobacco in Nigeria. However, connectivity remains a big challenge, which is why Afreximbank should support us to put in place transport infrastructure that connects Uganda through Sudan to Nigeria.