President Museveni, during the State of the Nation Address, has advocated for a one-market Africa in order to penetrate international markets and create more wealth and prosperity for Africa as a continent.
H.E. President Museveni expressed his disappointment in some African countries that still put trade barriers on other African countries, stating that as a continent, we can only offer markets for our goods to prosper and penetrate international markets.
“As African nations, we should ban all full common market protocols, remove trade barriers, and create free trade areas around the continent to freely move our goods amongst ourselves. This will help us create prosperity and be able to negotiate with other countries for international market space, like the European Union, China, and Asia, among others,” Museveni said.
He also advised Ugandan entrepreneurs to reduce the importation of goods and concentrate more on production to increase exportation and create prosperity for Uganda.
“Let’s concentrate on the production of goods like coffee, milk, fish, and beef for our population and exportation. The other day, in my speech in Nairobi, I was able to castigate the African practice of exporting raw materials. This is very dangerous for this continent. Here, I have banned the export of unprocessed minerals,” he added.
Museveni advised African nations to strive for and establish a continental common market for Africa, saying that the goal should also include fostering regional political federations to make it feasibly easy to connect with each other.
“While creating a common market is relatively straightforward, a political federation should ideally comprise people who share similarities and compatibility, preferably including a common language. We have the good fortune of having the neutral dialect of Swahili, which will easily be the official language of the potentially very powerful Federation of the East Africa Federation,” Museveni emphasized.
The State of the Nations Address, which was attended by the Speakers of Parliament, Members of Parliament, Ministers, and the Fourth Estate, took place on June 7, 2024, at Kololo Airstrip.
