Africa: Uganda’s alcohol trade may pose health hazard to citizens, as 65% of alcohol producers are unregistered

Ugandan citizens might be at risk consuming alcoholic beverages in the country as approximately 65% of alcoholic beverage producers are not registered.

According to africa.businessinsider.com, this not only causes the government to lose a significant amount of tax revenue but also puts people at risk for health problems.

It is also worth noting that the sales of these unregistered beverages thrive in ungazetted areas like people’s backyards.

According to the Uganda Alcohol Industry Association, approximately 65% of alcoholic beverage producers in Uganda are not registered, which not only causes the government to lose a significant amount of tax revenue but also puts people at risk for health problems.

The corporate relations director of Uganda Breweries Limited (UBL), Ms. Juliana Kaggwa, stated at a public-private sector dialogue on illicit trade in Uganda that only 35% of alcohol manufacturers in Uganda pay tax, costing the government about Shs2 trillion in taxable income.

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This, according to Ms. Juliana Kaggwa, implies that at least 65% of Uganda’s alcohol producers are not taxed and are not registered anywhere.

“About Shs2 trillion of taxes is what we lose. But it should be the job of an individual to question why they are drinking something whose source they don’t know,” Ms. Kaggwa said.

She pointed out that their association’s intervention had been thwarted by the illicit alcohol trade’s 9% annual growth rate over the previous five years.

According to Dr. Julius Byaruhanga, the director of policy and business development at the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda, the illicit alcohol trade is very deeply ingrained in the country’s economy, so in order to put a stop to it, sector players need to have a clear action plan that may involve developing a public-private sector mechanism and framework.

He stated that the “technical group should be able to draw an action plan detailing roles of each of the players both public and public sector.”

The production of illegal alcohol, according to Mr. David Livingstone Ebiru, executive director of the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), continues to flourish in ungazetted areas like people’s backyards.

He pointed out that illicit alcohol affects people and the economy in terms of security, exposes consumers to unsafe products, and skews trade relations.