Minister of State for Planning Amos Lugoloobi has challenged Uganda’s construction and hardware industry to move beyond import-dependent trading and invest in manufacturing, value addition and regional distribution.
The call comes as Government seeks to position the private sector at the centre of Uganda’s economic transformation, with manufacturing and export growth expected to play a critical role in expanding domestic production and creating jobs.
Speaking at the Construction Hardware Dealers’ Association of Uganda (CHADA) Annual Conference 2026 at Lake Victoria Serena Golf Resort, Kigo, Lugoloobi said the construction industry has the potential to become a major driver of industrialisation if businesses move higher up the value chain.
“I particularly encourage our domestic investors to think beyond trading alone and progressively move into manufacturing, value addition and regional distribution,” Lugoloobi said.
He argued that Uganda’s construction sector should no longer be viewed simply as a consumer of materials or an expenditure item, but as a productive investment ecosystem capable of generating demand for local industries.
Every house, factory, warehouse, hotel, school, hospital, industrial park, road and logistics facility, he said, creates demand across a broad domestic value chain, ranging from building materials and steel to electrical products, transport and logistics services.
From hardware shops to factories
Lugoloobi said deeper domestic production would allow more of the value generated by the construction boom to remain in Uganda through increased investment, job creation, technology transfer, enterprise development and tax revenues.
For hardware dealers and other construction-sector businesses, the transition could involve moving from importing and distributing finished products to producing or adding value to materials locally before supplying Uganda and neighbouring markets.
Uganda’s geographic position, he said, gives domestic manufacturers an opportunity to use the country as a production and distribution base for the wider East African and African markets.
The push comes amid Government’s broader Tenfold Growth Strategy and the Fourth National Development Plan, which seek to accelerate investment, production, value addition and exports.
Lugoloobi linked the construction industry’s transformation to Uganda’s longer-term ambition of expanding the economy towards US$500 billion by 2040, saying such an objective requires a private sector capable of investing in productive capacity rather than concentrating primarily on commerce.
Construction demand and industrialisation
A stronger local construction-materials industry could also help Uganda capture more economic value from infrastructure, housing, tourism and industrial development.
Lugoloobi said Uganda needs a construction industry capable of delivering productive infrastructure, industrial facilities, quality housing and tourism assets while simultaneously creating opportunities for local manufacturers and suppliers.
However, businesses at the CHADA conference raised a range of issues affecting the sector, including formalisation, taxation, access to working capital, transport costs, local manufacturing, availability of reliable sector data and the need for structured engagement with Government.
These challenges are significant for businesses seeking to transition from trading into manufacturing, where investment requirements, financing costs, logistics and regulatory compliance can determine whether locally produced goods remain competitive against imports.
Government-business dialogue
Lugoloobi said Government would continue engaging organised private-sector bodies to identify constraints affecting businesses and develop policy responses based on evidence from companies operating in the market.
He said such engagement would also help Government improve compliance, strengthen local manufacturing and address barriers that could limit investment in productive sectors.
CHADA Chairman Abbas Mutyaba said the annual conference was intended to provide a national platform for collaboration between the public and private sectors on issues affecting Uganda’s construction industry.
The discussions place the hardware and construction industry at a potentially important intersection between Uganda’s infrastructure expansion and its industrialisation agenda, with the sector facing pressure to evolve from a distribution-led business model into one that also supports domestic production and regional exports.
