Uganda has developed a new strategy for its cotton, textiles and apparels sectors that could generate 50,000 new jobs and $650 million in additional export revenues over the next eight years. The strategy, which is also supposed to feed into the third edition of the National Development Plan NDPIII, will increase fiber cotton production, scale up domestic value addition and also create new employment.

Besides addressing structural and policy bottlenecks that currently hamper development of the cotton value chain, the strategy will propose the establishment of five new vertically integrated textile mills. The strategy proposes to revive the cotton production value chain and investment in export-oriented apparel as well as garment production factories that would initially rely on imported fabric.

It also aims to attract targeted FDI into the sector while supporting existing industrial players to develop into integrated value chains that export full value apparel products. As per the strategy, the proportion of processed lint would be progressively raised to 75 per cent of production or 20,000 tonne annually based on current output.