Ugandan think tank concerned over proposed govt ban on mitumba imports

01 Dec '24

2 min read

Ugandan think tank concerned over proposed govt ban on mitumba imports

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Insights

Ugandan think tank Economic Policy Research Centre is concerned over the government's planned initiative to ban second-hand clothes and footwear in the country, saying the decision will lead to short-term job losses, reduce import tax revenue and increase imports of cheaper new clothes from low-cost producing countries in Asia, especially China.
The ban will affect the poor more, it noted.

The Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), a think tank under Uganda’s Makerere University, recently expressed concern over the government’s planned initiative to ban second-hand clothes (mitumba) and footwear in the country, saying the decision will lead to short-term job losses, reduce import tax revenue and increase imports of cheaper new clothes from low-cost producing countries in Asia, especially China.

The ban on second-hand clothing and footwear imports was adopted in 2016 by the East African Community (EAC) Heads of State at its 17th Ordinary Summit.

The ban, to be implemented between 2017 and 2019, aimed at phasing out such imports by gradually raising tariffs. Uganda, however, has delayed the ban due to opposition by domestic traders and US diplomatic pressure.

However, in early 2024, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa reaffirmed his commitment to such a ban to boost the domestic textile sector.

“Based on the facts, we know that the sector within the region is employing about 4.9 million persons, in the East African region. And this employment could be directly or indirectly [affected]. In Uganda alone, the number of people employed in the second-hand cloth trade is estimated to be over 690,000 persons,” EPRC executive director Sarah Ssewanyana told a recent policy dialogue on the implications of the proposed ban.

“I want you to compare that with the number of people that we release from our tertiary institutions vis a vis the level of employment. So we stand to lose this employment if we continue with a decision to ban the industry,” she said.

In 2015, the EAC imported 12.5 per cent of the world’s second hand clothes, valued at $274 million, and this grew until 2016, when Rwanda reduced such import by 35 per cent.

Uganda’s annual imports of second-hand apparel have grown by 43 per cent from $61 million in 2013 to $106 million in 2022, mainly from the United States, Canada and China.

Ssewanyana said the ban will affect the poor more.

In 2023, China exported second-hand clothes worth $58.7 million to Uganda, followed by the United States ($13.2 million), Canada ($12.2 million) and India ($6 million). China has remained Uganda’s biggest supplier of second hand clothes since 2014.

The emergence of China as well as United Arab Emirates, India and Pakistan as major exporters of second-hand clothes to Uganda is due to the evolution of the global trade networks of second hand clothes, the think tank said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)