By Mulengera Reporters
Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (Industry), David Bahati, has announced plans by Government to invest an additional UGX31 billion in East African Medical Vitals (EAMV) to expand local production of medical gloves, reduce imports and position Uganda as a regional supplier of medical consumables.
Bahati said the investment, planned for the next financial year, would support the installation of the company’s third and fourth production lines at its Namanve factory, increasing its capacity to meet demand from Government health facilities, private hospitals and regional markets.
Speaking during the commissioning of the expanded facility and launch of the two additional production lines on Tuesday, Bahati said Government had already invested UGX21.4 billion in the company through the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC), enabling it to manufacture approximately 80 million pairs of gloves that Uganda previously imported.
“We have invested UGX21.4 billion in East African Medical Vitals, which has seen a production of around 80 million gloves that we were originally importing,” Bahati said.
He added that Government intended to invest another UGX31 billion in the next financial year to expand production and work towards a target of 300 million gloves, sufficient to meet the needs of both the public and private sectors.
Bahati said the intervention was part of Government’s wider industrialisation policy, which combines strategic investment in local companies, import substitution, export promotion, industrial parks, affordable electricity and tax incentives to encourage manufacturing.
He explained that Government was increasingly using its investment arm, UDC, to capitalize promising manufacturing enterprises, support their growth and enable them to compete with imported products.
The minister also said Government was prepared to protect local manufacturers through import taxation once domestic factories had demonstrated their ability to produce goods of the required quality and quantities.
He cited National Medical Stores (NMS) offtake arrangements as another way Government was creating markets for locally manufactured products, allowing investors to expand production with greater confidence.
Bahati further disclosed that industrial electricity tariffs for large manufacturers had been reduced from approximately 11 cents to nearly five cents, while investors committing more than $10 million in industrial parks could qualify for a 10-year tax holiday.
He said Government’s investment in industrial parks such as Namanve was intended to provide investors with the infrastructure and environment needed to establish factories, create employment and generate wealth.
Bahati also linked industrial growth to peace and security, arguing that a stable environment, created by president Museveni’s governance, was necessary for attracting investment and sustaining manufacturing enterprises.
He commended EAMV for establishing one of the few medical glove manufacturing facilities on the African continent, saying local production would not only save foreign exchange but also strengthen Uganda’s health system by improving access to gloves used in preventing infections in hospitals.
Uganda spends approximately $600 million annually importing pharmaceuticals and related medical products, according to Bahati, who said developing domestic manufacturing capacity was necessary to reduce that import burden.
UDC Executive Director Dr Patrick Birungi said the investment in EAMV reflected the corporation’s mandate to build productive enterprises capable of supporting the country’s tenfold economic growth strategy through domestic manufacturing, employment creation, import substitution and regional exports.
Addressing the gathering, Birungi said UDC, which was re-established in 2016, had spent the last decade investing in viable enterprises in strategic sectors to increase domestic production, strengthen value chains and reduce the country’s dependence on imported goods.
He said UDC’s interventions were not simply about providing capital to companies but establishing productive assets that could generate lasting economic benefits.
“Today we are launching more than two new production lines. We are watching a Ugandan company grow, Ugandan workers build real skills, and our country take another step towards making the things we use every day,” Birungi said.
He explained that the corporation’s 2023 investment of UGX21.4 billion in EAMV, through equity and debt financing, supported the acquisition and installation of the second production line as well as providing working capital.
According to Dr Birungi, the additional investment increased the factory’s production capacity significantly, with the second line adding capacity for approximately 128 million pairs of examination and surgical gloves annually.
He said the investment was informed by Uganda’s heavy dependence on imported medical examination and surgical gloves, which exposed the country to international supply-chain disruptions, foreign exchange pressures and fluctuations in global prices.
Birungi said the local manufacturing project was therefore intended to ensure that essential medical supplies could be produced within the country while retaining more economic value locally.
He disclosed that UDC’s Board had approved additional financing for the third and fourth production lines, which are being launched as part of the next phase of the company’s expansion.
The expansion is being undertaken in partnership with the East African Development Bank and EAMV, with approximately UGX31 billion approved from UDC’s side towards the additional investment.
However, the UDC boss said the corporation’s ambition went beyond replacing imported gloves and meeting Uganda’s domestic requirements.
“Our ambition must progress from manufacturing for Uganda, to manufacturing in Uganda for the wider regional and international markets,” he said.
He said the additional production lines would improve economies of scale and position EAMV to supply customers across the East African Community, the wider African market and other export destinations.
Birungi said UDC wanted its portfolio companies to become competitive enterprises capable of meeting domestic demand, generating export revenues, strengthening Uganda’s manufacturing base and improving the country’s balance of trade.
Reflecting on UDC’s ten years since its re-establishment, he said the corporation measured its impact not merely by the amount of money invested but by the productive assets established, businesses strengthened, jobs created, imports replaced and exports generated.
He described EAMV as an example of that progression, moving from dependence on imported medical supplies to local investment, expanded production and readiness to serve regional markets.
He also thanked the East African Development Bank for supporting the financing of industrial development and called on EAMV’s management to maintain quality standards while pursuing commercially sustainable growth.
Meanwhile, EAMV Executive Chairman Ben Kavuya urged Government to support farmers to grow rubber, arguing that the expanding medical glove industry had created a reliable market for latex, one of its essential raw materials.
Kavuya said rubber growing should be promoted alongside traditional cash crops such as coffee and cotton, with Government supporting farmers to establish plantations and identifying suitable areas for cultivation.
He argued that rubber production could become an industry in its own right, providing raw materials for medical manufacturing while creating additional employment and income opportunities for farmers.
Managing Director Bryan Kavuya explained that EAMV’s strategy was to begin with an established market for locally manufactured gloves before progressively developing the industries that supply its raw materials.
He cited Uganda Breweries as an example of a manufacturer that initially relied on imported raw materials but later encouraged farmers across the country to grow crops that could supply its production requirements.
Bryan said EAMV intended to adopt a similar approach by encouraging farmers to plant rubber trees whose sap would be processed into latex for glove manufacturing.
He added that the company was also examining opportunities to source more chemicals and packaging materials locally, although some specialized medical-grade packaging materials were not yet available in Uganda.
He said developing these backward linkages would make the investment more sustainable, create additional industries and reduce dependence on imported inputs.
The company’s leadership also highlighted its investment in Ugandan technical skills, revealing that approximately 13 engineers had been sponsored for specialized training in Malaysia before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan said the training and subsequent development of an internal quality management system had enabled Ugandan engineers to take over operations previously handled by expatriates.
He disclosed that the factory, which initially employed seven expatriate workers from outside Uganda, was now fully operated by Ugandans, with employees receiving on-the-job training and opportunities for internal promotion.
He added that the factory operated under ISO 13485 quality management systems for medical devices, with its certification handled by a United Kingdom-based certification body.
EAMV’s management called for closer coordination between Government ministries, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, to identify suitable areas for rubber growing and support farmers to supply the factory.
The commissioning and expansion launch formed part of UDC’s activities marking ten years since its re-establishment in 2016 and ahead of the inaugural Uganda Industrialization Conference scheduled for November 18 to 20, 2026, at Speke Resort Munyonyo. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
