MBARARA– In a bid to increase their production, Mbarara traders and manufacturers under the umbrella of Mbarara City Traders Association [MBACITA] plan to visit the Madhvani Group of Companies to learn how the latter has been able to stay in business for decades.
According to Simon Mwijuka, Chairman MBACITA, the benchmarking trip to Busoga-based Group of companies will help traders from Mbarara to innovate and boost value addition.
“You see when you don’t learn from others you will never improve on the quality of your products so we are going to Madhvani to see how they started because it has been in production for the last 100 years so we are also going there to see the magic bullet they are using to sustain in the money economy especially at a commercial scale,” Mwijuka explains.
The Madhvani Group of Companies commonly referred to as the Madhvani Group, is one of the largest conglomerates in Uganda. The group has investments in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Middle East, India, and North America.
Most notably Kakira Sugar Limited currently operates at a crushing capacity of 7,500 tonnes of cane per day equivalent to 2,200,000 tonnes per a year.
The sugar mill produces 180,000 tonnes of sugar, which constitutes 45 percent of sugar consumed in Uganda. It also generates 51 MW of green electricity 51 MW. 32MW is supplied to the national grid.
Relatedly, in 2016, Kakira installed a state of art distillery plant with a capacity of 60,000 litres per day. It utilizes 82,500 tonnes of molasses [by-product of cane sugar crystallization] to produce 22,000,000 litres of extra neutral alcohol 96.4 percent annually.
The company employs 11,000 persons and indirectly benefits 200,000 individuals in its surrounding districts.
Mwijuka says the interaction with the successful business company will let the traders understand the financial disciplines.
“We want to know how they are handling their taxation, labourers, and access to finances because we need to take the same journey that Madhvani took 100 years ago to reach where he is now.”
Mwijuka confirmed that the delegation of 35 people which include; manufacturers, students, politicians, hoteliers, women, and the youth will tour the group of companies on June 17th.
He encouraged the business community to work together for the steady growth of Mbarara.
“We need to work together if all the developments are going to be useful to our city. Even the city leadership should do the enforcement with humanity instead of brutalizing the traders because running a business is not flexible like it was before,” Mwijuka says
MBACITA is a voluntary business organization registered with Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) in August 2021 to support the business community.
The association is collaborating with the developing partners in Mbarara City such as the Uganda Revenue Authority [URA], Uganda Registrations Services Bureau [URSB], Mbarara City Council, and Uganda Bureau of Standards [UNBS], and financial institutions to address business-related challenges such as taxation, licenses among others.
“We want to become a voice for the voiceless traders in Mbarara to address some of the most placing issues to the traders in the city like mobilizing traders to have curiae services which help to transport traders’ goods and the firearms to put off the fire before even police intervene.”
The association, which has already attracted 1681 traders, targets a total of 680,000 traders in Mbarara.
“We don’t want to know whether you’re operating billions of capital for us. We consider any person operating a business in Mbarara. However, we are worried about financial constraints to render services to all traders in Mbarara.”
We also want to advocate for industrialization, value addition, and innovation because in current Uganda, when you sell raw products you earn less, unlike when someone adds value.”
Robert Kanusu, Resident City Commissioner Mbarara North emphasized the importance of benchmarking, stressing that it’s the road to success.
“Particularly I am impressed by the executive committee of MBACITA and next that time they can think of Namanve and Kapeka to know what technology people are using to improve production,” he said,
https://thecooperator.news/kashari-traders-beg-government-to-re-open-cattle-markets/
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