PPDA Boss Benson Turamye urge procuring entities to prioritize local content to drive growth

As Uganda seeks to accelerate economic transformation if the citizens and companies, Procuring entities and suppliers have been urged to make local content a central pillar of public procurement so that government expenditure translates into broader wealth creation and sustainable economic development through supporting local businesses, strengthening productive sectors and improving livelihoods.

The Executive Director of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA), Benson Turamye, while delivering a keynote address at a Suppliers’ Forum said Uganda’s ambition to achieve tenfold economic growth will depend not only on the scale of public investment, but also on the extent to which such investments create opportunities for Ugandan businesses, workers and communities.

The forum that was organized by Uganda Development Bank (UDB) at Four Points by Sheraton in Kampala was held under the theme, “Enhancing Supplier Engagement in Public Procurement for Sustainable Development,” 

Turamye said procurement should be viewed beyond compliance with regulations and administrative procedures, describing it as a key instrument for delivering Uganda’s sustainable development ambitions.

“Sustainable development is the destination, supplier engagement is the bridge, and procurement is the vehicle that gets you there. A good procurement gives you a good supplier, and a good supplier delivers sustainable development; we are therefore all beneficiaries.”

He added that infrastructure projects where roads are constructed without adequate consideration for communities along their routes, drainage systems that result in flooding of gardens, and borrow pits that are abandoned after construction and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

“These are the kinds of outcomes that procurement must prevent if public expenditure is to deliver genuine development,” he said.

UDB Managing Director Dr. Patricia Ojangole said the forum was timely, noting that procurement should not be viewed merely as an administrative function but as an important component of the bank’s ability to deliver on its development mandate.

“At UDB, we recognise and regard our suppliers not merely as contractors or vendors but as strategic partners. Every project delivered, every system implemented, every facility maintained, every service rendered contributes to the bank’s ability to finance enterprise growth, strengthen the productive sectors that we support and improve livelihoods across Uganda,” she said.

She said effective procurement can strengthen resilient value chains, promote local enterprise development and encourage responsible private-sector participation in Uganda’s economic transformation.