Ugandan exports to Somalia double in a year
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on The Independent
Ugandan exports to Somalia more than doubled, from 11.4 billion shillings in 2023 to 28 billion in 2024, according to UN data. Officials from both countries urged businesses to make better use of trade opportunities at a meeting of their joint commission in Mogadishu, reports The Independent.
Ugandan exports to Somalia more than doubled in one year, rising from 11.4 billion Ugandan shillings ($2.75 million) in 2023 to 28 billion ($6.78 million) in 2024, according to data from the United Nations UN Comtrade database reported by The Independent.
Tobacco products were the largest export category, worth 10.6 billion shillings ($2.55 million), followed by aircraft and parts at 5 billion ($1.2 million), and wood products at 2.2 billion ($528,470). Trade in the other direction remains much smaller: Somali exports to Uganda stood at 146 million shillings ($35,400) in 2021, compared with 2.8 billion ($671,000) in 2016.
Uganda’s Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vincent Bagiire Waiswa, said businesses in both countries could make greater use of trade opportunities. He was speaking on Wednesday in Mogadishu at the opening of a mid-term review of the Uganda-Somalia Joint Permanent Commission, held alongside a business and investment forum and an exhibition.
His Somali counterpart, Hamza Adan Haadoow, called on businesses to form partnerships and seek new markets. Somali importers are particularly interested in fresh fruit, cereals, maize, wheat, cassava, long-life milk, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, processed coffee and tea. Bagiire also presented Somalia’s 3,333-kilometre coastline as an asset for trade links with the Gulf.
Summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence tools, under AFREEQUE’s editorial responsibility.
