Government ministries, departments and agencies are banned from procuring grain and grain products from entities not certified by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS).
The ban effective from August 23, 2024, for all MDAs only excludes primary and secondary schools but only up to December 31 this year, a move welcomed by the Grain Council of Uganda.
In doing this, the government is seeking to implement and enforce a 2015 policy that was made to improve the quality of grain, Uganda’s most locally consumed and exported commodity.
The government has overtime worked towards controlling and improving the quality of grain and grain products traded on the Ugandan and Regional markets but with little success.
The National Grain Trade Policy of 2015 which requires all public entities to procure grain and grain products from providers certified by UNBS, was expected to encourage producers and traders to up their game and meet UNBS requirements, thereby gaining the confidence of the local and export markets.
Uganda’s grain and grain products form a major commodity traded within the East African Community and beyond.
The country produces about 3.5 million tons of grain products, mainly maize and other cereals, worth more than 2 billion dollars, which exports amount to about 100 million dollars.
However, State Minister for Investments, Evelyn Anite says the country’s products have been rejected across the frontiers due to poor post-harvest management practices that lead to contamination with aflatoxins, among other quality issues.
“Therefore, there is a need to enforce compliance to grain and grain product standards to protect human and animal health and to promote cross-border trade,” she says.
Since the 2015 policy, UNBS has developed various standards for a range of grains and grain products.
It has also certified over 630 providers across the country for maize products with production capacities estimated at more than 217,000 tons per month.
As a way of ensuring that MDAs comply with these standards, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) has issued Guideline No. 13 of 2024 on Procurement of Grain and Grain Products from Providers Certified by Uganda National Bureau of Standards.
The main thrust of this guideline is that all government entities shall procure grain and grain products from providers certified by UNBS.
“The issuance of the guidelines is anchored on section 134 of the PPDA Act Cap 205 which empowers the PPDA to issue and gazette guidelines for the better carrying out of the functions of public procurement in the country,” the minister says.
The guideline is available on the PPDA web portal and is to be distributed to all Accounting Officers who should then distribute copies to the contract’s committees and all the members of the procurement and disposal units of their respective entities.
The guideline shall apply to all government procuring and disposing entities from 23rd August 2024 save for primary and secondary schools that will apply it from January 2025.
