The Uganda Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has sought more funding to boost quality assurance and ensure that their mandate is fulfilled and goals are attained.

The Acting Executive Director of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), Daniel Richard Makayi Nangalama, said that the standard body is currently dealing with insufficient budget and manpower to carry out its mandate.

Nangalama made the revelations on Monday, April 15, 2024, during Minister Gen Wilson Mbasu Mbadi’s first visit to the UNBS headquarters in Bweyogerere, a Kampala suburb.

Nangalama informed the minister that UNBS is now operating at less than 50% capacity, both in terms of required finances and staff to serve Ugandans, and that customers, primarily in the private sector, pay in advance for all UNBS services, but fund availability is insufficient to meet the levels and timing required to serve the paid-up clients, resulting in significant delays and losses for the business community.

“There is therefore a need for the government to review the UNBS funding model and level to ensure that the money paid by the business community is immediately available to give timely services to enterprises and ease the cost of doing business in Uganda,” Nangalama stated.

General Wilson Mbasu Mbadi, Minister of State for Trade, promised to support the UNBS in carrying out its functions and fulfilling its mandate.

“UNBS is a crucial agency in ensuring that Ugandan products are competitive on national, regional, and global markets, offering much needed certification services for domestic and Ugandan exports, and most importantly, ridding  the market of substandard and harmful products to safeguard the health and safety of Ugandan consumers,” Gen Mbadi noted.

He added that UNBS’s mandate is critical not only to the business community but also to national security. He urged UNBS staff to perform their functions diligently and with integrity, giving confidence to all stakeholders.

He urged UNBS to deal with unscrupulous people who are adulterating good products, using the example of people mixing good cocoa with jackfruit seeds due to high cocoa prices, which can have an impact on the cocoa market.

He emphasized that Uganda’s economy cannot be expanded from $50 billion to $500 billion without UNBS.

He promised to lobby for adequate budgetary support for UNBS to carry out its mandate.

General Wilson Mbasu Mbadi was appointed Minister of State for Trade by President Museveni in a cabinet reshuffle on March 21, 2024. The president tasked them with fighting corruption and mobilizing the masses for wealth creation.