The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | URN | Uganda may soon establish mineral markets as part of the efforts to ensure that the minerals produced in the country benefit the economy and Ugandans in general.
While the country is endowed with vast mineral resources, including gold, lithium, copper, and rare earths, among others.
However, there is concern within the government and the development actor that the mining and minerals sector’s contribution to the country’s economy remains minimal. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics said the sector contributed just 2 percent to Uganda’s GDP in the 2022/23 financial year.
The government lists the sector among the relevant sectors that could contribute to domestic revenue mobilization and long-term structural transformation of the economy.
Mining is one of the ATMS or likely contributors to the ten-fold economic growth ambition from USD 50 billion to USD 500 billion by 2040.
On the flipside, the Ministry of Finance has indicated that the sector today has a very low contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at less than 1%.
However, Edmond Ariyo, a Senior Economist in the Tax Department at the Ministry of Finance, is of the view that modest contribution masks the sector’s growing importance.
“Particularly in exports and future growth prospects. We note that the sector is dominated by gold, which accounts for the bulk of the mineral export,” said Ariyo, who has extensively researched mineral and taxation policies.
A mineral like gold with growing global demand can transform Uganda’s economy. The reality is that the market for this metal has been described as a corridor of corruption and shadowy deals, given that the country lacks a traceability mechanism to ensure accountability from gold sales.
To address these gaps, Uganda could introduce specific traceability and accountability measures such as digital tracking systems for mineral shipments, centralized electronic reporting platforms for all transactions, and mandatory use of tamper-proof export tags that link each batch of gold to its point of origin.
The government of Uganda is turning to reforms introduced in neighboring Tanzania to explore the mineral market system introduced in the most recent mineral reforms.
Teams from the Ministry of Finance and the Energy and Mineral Development Ministry have had benchmarking tips to Tanzania’s gold-rich market, where mineral markets are thriving.
Tanzania’s Minerals Ministry on March 13th, 2026, said mineral transactions rose from just 8 billion Tanzanian shillings in 2018/19 to over 2 trillion shillings in both 2023 and 2024.
What was once unrecorded is now measured, taxed, and reinvested. These were traded through the official markets with sales officially recorded.
Tanzania boasts of 44 mineral markets and 120 mineral buying centers spread around areas with mining activities.
In mining hubs like Chunya, gold production surged from 5 kilograms per month to about 300 kilograms, a reflection not just of increased output, but of a system that captures what was previously invisible.
Today, the mineral sector contributes more than 10 percent of Tanzania’s GDP, employs over 6 million people, and accounts for more than half of the country’s non-traditional exports.
Can Kampala borrow a leaf from Dar es Salaam?
Mercy Gillian Lawino, an Economist at the Ministry of Finance, has been part of the benchmarking delegation to Tanzania said Uganda was impressed by the idea of the mineral markets. In those markets, minerals are weighed, tested, and valued in one place. Taxes and fees are deducted transparently before miners receive their payment.
“That system has simplified compliance and improved traceability,” said Lawino, speaking at a convening hosted by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), in collaboration with the Advocates Coalition on Development and Environment (ACODE) and the Civil Society Coalition on Oil and Gas (CSCO).
She said If implemented effectively, such markets could address one of Uganda’s most persistent challenges: knowing exactly what is being produced, sold, and exported.
Lawino, however, appeared frustrated by the bureaucracy within the government. No action had been taken towards a policy shift by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
In Tanzania, mineral trading has shifted from shadowy, informal deals to structured, state-monitored markets generating trillions in revenue.
In Uganda, however, the sector remains plagued by fragmentation, data discrepancies, and persistent revenue leakages.
Policy analysts and civil society say there are huge discrepancies in systems that could have turned around the mining and minerals sector in Uganda.
Some suggest that Uganda should end the informal trade in gold for maximum benefits. They suggest that the government currently does not know how much gold is produced by artisan and small-scale miners and lacks a real traceability mechanism.
Kenneth Asiimwe has spent years working with artisanal and small-scale miners, the backbone of the industry. From his vantage point, the problem is clear: too many authorities, too little coordination.
Licensed miners, he says, often find themselves caught between agencies, shut down by one, cleared by another, before they can even begin production.
“You are being closed and reopened before you even mine,” he says. “The more you organise, the faster we produce the revenue the government is looking for.” Said Asiimwe, the CEO of the Uganda Association of Artisanal and Small-Scale Miners.
He says that for miners operating in remote areas without internet access, even basic requirements like filing tax returns become impractical. The result is a system where compliance is difficult and enforcement uneven.
“Taxation should not be something I hunt for,” Asiimwe adds. “Bring it to the mine and make it simple; people will pay.”
Gloria Kempaka Mugambe has seen the inconsistencies firsthand. As head of Uganda’s Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, her work depends on reliable figures. But those figures, she says, rarely align.
“My main concern really is the continued discrepancies in production volumes, in revenues, being reported by the different agencies that we have, which are mandated to give us these figures.”
She said Uganda EITI Secretariat is preparing its fifth EITI report. Mugambe notes that a consistent challenge the secretariat faces is different figures from different government agencies.
“We consistently receive different figures from different agencies. This is a chronic problem,” she notes. Production data from the Ministry of Energy often differs sharply from export figures recorded at border points.
In some cases, more gold appears to leave the country than is officially produced. The implications are significant: lost revenue, weak accountability, and a system vulnerable to exploitation.
For economists like Edmond Ariyo, the issue goes beyond data. He points to deeper structural problems, low formalisation, regulatory bottlenecks, and policy inconsistencies that send mixed signals to investors and miners alike.
The government has, for instance, maintained restrictions on the export of raw minerals while simultaneously granting exceptions in certain cases.
“There are gaps across the entire value chain,” Ariyo says, “from production to beneficiation, and inconsistencies between tax and sector laws.”
Many have argued that it is through those inconsistences where much of the mineral-based revenue is lost. They have noted a disconnect between policy and practice.
Questions of the enforcement of the newly enacted laws and policies linger. Members of the security agencies deployed for enforcement have turned into mineral smugglers.
Specialised mineral police units exist, yet smuggling persists. Certification systems are in place, yet minerals move across borders with limited oversight.
For Asiimwe, the answer is not stricter enforcement alone, but smarter regulation. “Business will always survive policy if policy is unfair,” he says. “The solution is to meet halfway and simplify.”
As traditional sources of external financing decline, countries like Uganda are under increasing pressure to generate domestic revenue.
The mineral sector, rich, largely underexploited, and globally in demand, offers a clear opportunity. Tanzania has shown what is possible: a sector that not only generates revenue but also creates jobs, supports local economies, and contributes significantly to national development.
In Uganda, the minerals are there, their demand is rising, yet the systems to harness the revenue are dysfunctional.
To move forward, policymakers could take several immediate steps to initiate mineral market reforms. These include setting up a clear roadmap for establishing formal mineral trading centers, streamlining regulatory requirements for miners and traders, and strengthening collaboration between relevant government agencies.
The government could also prioritize investing in reliable data collection systems and begin pilot programs in key mining districts to test traceable and transparent mineral transactions.
It has been noted that by taking these practical first steps, Uganda can lay the groundwork for a more accountable and profitable minerals sector.
