Women selling grains at St Balikuddembe market in Uganda. Ten companies
are owed for maize and sorghum supplied to South Sudan under Strategic
Grain Reserve. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI | NATION
Thirteen out of 23 companies approved by Uganda’s parliament in
April 2018 to receive compensation for losses incurred after supplying
merchandise to South Sudan will have to wait longer as the government
verifies their claims.
South Sudan was Uganda’s main
export market until civil war broke out in 2013 and many Ugandan
traders, mainly grain dealers, lost their products or did not get paid
by South Sudan government departments.
In 2016,
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and South Sudan’s President Salva
Kiir signed a bilateral agreement with Kampala offering a $42.5 million
loan to compensate the traders, which Juba would pay back.
Approved list
The
Ugandan parliament then approved a list of 23 companies to be
compensated, but the finance ministry controversially paid all the money
to Uganda-South Sudan grain traders — an association of 10 traders.
The
Ministries of Trade and Finance were accused of distorting and
manipulating the list. Last week, the Minister of State for Finance
David Bahati told a parliamentary committee that the government
currently had no money to compensate the remaining firms and more
verification needed to be done.
Mr Bahati said the government will dispatch a team to carry out the verification in a month’s time.
The
chairperson of the Kampala City Traders Association Everest Kayondo
said the delay will make an already bad situation worse for the traders,
who incurred heavy losses and owe millions in debt.
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