16th National Competitiveness Forum

Hon. Amos Lugolobi, Minister of State for Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Planning), hosted the 16th Forum at the Golf Course Hotel in Kampala on 23 October 2025 on behalf of Hon. Matia Kasaija. Mr Patrick Ocailap, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, delivered the keynote.

Food processing and animal feeds are strategic sub-sectors of the agro-industrialisation anchor under the Tenfold Growth Strategy. Across four sessions, the Forum asked what it would take for them to compete in regional markets, including under AfCFTA, closing on the implications for the FY 2026/27 budget and NDP IV.

The Forum agreed that value addition, regional integration and private sector development are the pillars of competitiveness under NDP IV, and set out nine priorities to carry forward:

• PDM Pillar 3 — agro-industrialisation modalities under the Parish Development Model.
• Human capital — extension workers, animal nutritionists, feed processors, food technologists.
• Value addition — processing milling by-products, cassava and soya.
• Standards — the Animal Feeds Act operationalised, EAC standards harmonised, UNBS certification cheaper.
• Financing — INVITE, factoring facilities and targeted credit lines.
• Regional markets — non-tariff barriers addressed, export licensing digitised, duty-free access used.
• Infrastructure — bulking centres, storage, laboratories and reliable power.
• Raw materials — cassava, sunflower and insect protein in place of maize, soya and mukene.
• Monitoring — recommendations into the FY 2026/27 budget, tracked semi-annually.

The Forum's outcome matrix, published in January 2026, records 18 agreed actions across 12 issue areas, naming 16 institutions. Each action is tracked individually, with its lead institution and current status, on the Reforms Tracker.