Popular messaging app, WhatsApp, owned by Meta, has started aggressive advertising. Graphic and video notifications inundate status updates of users. If one clicks on them, they are sent straight to the account of the WhatsApp digital marketers.
There, products and services are explained in a great detail and then a message asking the user what exactly they want, pops up. That way their (advertisers) contacts are automatically included in the phone book of the users. The readiness of the advertisers to do business is upfront.
The interesting bit is that most of the demand generators or advertisers are Chinese companies marketing Chinese manufactured products. The irony is that since 2017 WhatsApp is blocked in mainland China (just like Facebook is banned in Uganda since 2021.) But WhatsApp works in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan where many Chinese businesses have offices.
The products range from light to heavy industrial machinery, tools, electric vehicles, construction materials, pharmaceuticals, household appliances, electronics plus electrical materials, mobile phones and computers, human and animal feeds, agricultural implements, sports equipment, textiles, cosmetics and beauty products to mention but a few.
In contrast, most of the Ugandan advertisers market housing, schools, restaurants, food and drink, mobile phone services, entertainment events, imported goods from China for sale, gospel and religious crusades, political rallies, etc. In a nutshell, it is more about the production of primary, low value-added products, consumption and fun. This is how it has been since independence, 64 years ago.
Uganda is currently in a very uncomfortable financial position. The national currency, the Shilling, is at its lowest in the last 33 years when valued against the United States Dollar. The exchange rate is in the neighbourhood of 4,400 for a dollar. Fuel prices per litre have moved to about Shs6,800 for petrol and Shs7,100 for diesel. This has affected overall food and essential household prices.
Those in charge of our economy say it is going to be like this or even get worse before it gets better.
All manner of arguments have been proffered including the war between USA/Israel and Iran plus the concomitant closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The war between Russia and Ukraine, the Protection of Sovereignty Act 2026, which some claim restricts inflows of foreign currency and drop in coffee prices on the world market.
It is said that if you don’t know when the rain started beating you, you will never know when you started getting wet.
Uganda’s economic problems did not start recently. We have had major underlaying challenges which unfortunately are covered up by arguments of impressive economic growth figure which average about six percent per annum.
Three areas besides low production and productivity that are never brought into the conversations with the seriousness they deserve are national debt plus leakages from inefficiency and corruption.
Almost everything we are consuming like the goods advertised by the Chinese on WhatsApp status are imported. Increasingly we are including a lot of importation of food despite the fertile soils and majority of people being employed in agriculture. Many of our markets have carrots, onions, tomatoes and Irish potatoes plus fruits imported from Kenya and South Africa.
So many of our people are extremely poor and live on the periphery of the economy. They are not into value addition and thus are not bound to earn significantly to create effective and reliable demand to support the economy. 2023/2024 Uganda Bureau of Statistics National Household Survey Report put at least 16.1 percent of Ugandans, or about 7.2 million people living below the absolute poverty line of $1 per day.
You can’t expect significant tax revenues from unproductive people. Yet the government must provide services like health, education, and roads for them.
The solution creates a problem. We must borrow significant amounts to support the budget. As of June 2025, Uganda’s foreign debt stood at $16.30 billion, which is about Shs63.19 trillion. Total public debt stood at around $37.12 billion, or approximately Shs143.92 trillion. This burden sits on a 2026/2027 national budget of about $23.5 billion or Shs84.39 trillion.
This debt does not come cheap. The largest and fastest-growing expenditure in Uganda’s budget is debt servicing. In the 2026/2027 budget, almost 40 percent of the budget which is Shs33.4 trillion is allocated for debt servicing which is mainly payment of interest. This is money that would go towards production.
Yet a significant amount of Uganda’s national expenditure, including from borrowed funds, is lost in corruption. The IGG puts it at about Shs10 trillion per year. Or you have shoddy work on infrastructure like roads and dams, meaning there is no value for money.
Uganda has spent about Shs1.5 trillion on the proposed 264-bed Lubowa Specialised Hospital in the last five years.
The rest is channelled towards things other than serious economic production. The foreign travels. The endless national functions. All the pledges and donations to Artistes and other hangers for the sake of political patronage, fall in this category.
The Ugandan economy is not going to reap from where it has not sown. If we are focusing on waste, consumption and corruption, the economy may grow but the growth will be deceptive. This is because even money diverted from roads, to private property like apartments is part of the national growth figure.
The priorities have to be clear and intentional. Countries like China that we call upon to invest in Uganda prioritise education and training plus transfer and acquisition of the latest technology. They may even steal it if need be. This is how they build capacity with skills to match high level production and development of superior technology. They don’t just make people happy by giving them free money.
That is how China managed to move about 850 million people out of extreme poverty in the last four decades. By coincidence, this is the same time the ruling NRM government has been in power, chasing the dream of transforming Uganda into a developed country.