UAE-Uganda trade to blossom as Uganda’s request to open up Consulate in Dubai gets Approved

The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates – UAE announced the approval of Uganda’s request to open up a Consulate in Dubai.

“Referring to esteemed Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Note Verbal No. dated 4th/3/2022, to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, requesting to open up a Consulate in Dubai, the Embassy has the honor to inform the esteemed Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda that the UAE government has approved the request by the Ugandan government to open up a consulate in Dubai.”

“The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates avails its self of this opportunity to renew to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uganda the assurances of its highest consideration.”

This is anticipated to tighten more trade relationship between the two countries.

At the moment, UAE is Uganda’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and Gulf region.

In 2020, UAE exported $518M to Uganda with the main products being Refined Petroleum ($317M), Cars ($21.3M), and Cement ($19.6M). During the last 25 years, the exports of United Arab Emirates to Uganda have increased at an annualized rate of 9.01%, from $59.9M in 1995 to $518M in 2020.

In that yeart, UAE did not export any services to Uganda.

On the other hand, in the same year, Uganda exported $3.5B to UAE with the main products being Gold ($3.47B), Refined Petroleum ($10.1M), and Fish Fillets ($6.02M). During the last 25 years the exports of Uganda to UAE have increased at an annualized rate of 42.7%, from $479k in 1995 to $3.5B in 2020.

Still in 2020, UAE ranked 51 in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI 0.16), and 24 in total exports ($216B). That same year, Uganda ranked 99 in the Economic Complexity Index (ECI -0.97), and 108 in total exports ($5.87B).

During Dubai Expo 2020 in October 2021, Gen. Jeje Odongo, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that UAE is an important partner, revealing that since 2009 when Uganda and the UAE established diplomatic relations, trade between the two countries has grown significantly.

According to him, exports from Uganda to the UAE increased from 300 million US Dollars in 2009 to 1.85 billion US Dollars in 2020. During the same period, investment figures rose from 150 million US Dollars to over 800 million US Dollars while remittances from the UAE currently stand at 200 million US Dollars.

Zaake W. Kibedi, Uganda’s Ambassador to the UAE said that Uganda exports mainly skilled workers, minerals, precious metals, tea, coffee, cocoa, agricultural produce and meat products.

He revealed that UAE has invested close to 5 billion US Dollars in Uganda, of which 2 billion US Dollars was in the form of foreign direct investment, while the remaining is portfolio investment. The UAE investments in Uganda are mainly in five sectors, including petroleum, energy, infrastructure construction, commercial agriculture and services.