Linking financial institutions with the bamboo sector in Uganda

INBAR has conducted an awareness workshop for Ugandan bankers and financial institutions in a bid to address sectoral financial limitations for the bamboo sector development.

INBAR has recently held an awareness workshop to sensitise Ugandan financial institutions about the investment potential of the bamboo sector and initiate discussion on likely business collaboration among investors, entrepreneurs, and monetary institutions. The workshop, which was held on 23 November 2021 in Kampala, brought participants from Ugandan development and commercial banks, micro-financial institutions, National Forestry Authority (NFA), and the private sector.

The workshop hosted 31 bankers and small and microfinance institutions and raised pertinent sectoral and financial issues and initiated discussions about potential solutions and priorities. The participants have underlined the workshop’s significance in terms of awakening the monetary institutions to consider the bamboo industry as a potential client. They expressed their readiness to work with the private sector, especially with the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), to enhance innovation, improved technology, and product quality in the development of the industry. Ronald Mugabi, a banker from Equity Bank, shared his experience regarding how bamboo is a lucrative venture that he has been closely monitoring. He said that one of his clients who had got a loan for bamboo plantations was able to repay it in time and now the bamboo business the client has embarked on is flourishing.

In her keynote speech, Hon. Flavia Nabugere, the secretary-general of the Uganda Bamboo Association, stressed the importance of the initiative of joining the financial sector with actors of the bamboo value chain in Uganda, as it has been a missing link in the bamboo sector development of the country.

Representatives of the private sector said that financial limitations remain the main problem to intensify bamboo investments in the country. Herbert Mugisha, the founder of Mgahinga Craft Center, a local social company known for bamboo crafts, said that he is very certain about the demand for bamboo and how it is increasing for both seedlings and products mostly on the local market.

This workshop comes as a response to the ten-year Uganda National Bamboo Strategy and Action Plan (2019 – 2029), which has been adopted by the Ministry of Water and Environment to increase and add value to the current bamboo development, sustainable management, and utilisation efforts. One of the major pillars of it is to develop the pro-poor industry and SME value chains that would create income and employment for smallholders, women, and the youth.

In his closing remarks, Mr. Tom Okello, the Executive Director of the National Forestry Authority, said that the growing of bamboo reduces pressure on the existing forests as the demand for wood products continues to go up. He also said that the government is currently promoting the growing of bamboo because of its enormous industrial and domestic value.

INBAR as part of its work in East Africa aims to tap into investment opportunities of the Uganda bamboo sector to support the industry and SME value chains in the country. Through its Dutch-Sino East Africa Bamboo Development Programme II, apart from Uganda, it is currently working with different stakeholders to attract investors and entrepreneurs into the bamboo sector and enhance its business and trade environment in Ethiopia and Kenya.