Kampala forum aims to turn Uganda-Nigeria ties into deals

Kampala forum aims to turn Uganda-Nigeria ties into deals

KAMPALA, Uganda — Uganda and Nigeria will try to convert decades of warm diplomatic relations into hard commercial deals next week, as more than 20 Nigerian companies join Ugandan firms in Kampala for a two-day trade and investment forum.

The Uganda-Nigeria Business Forum and Exhibition 2026 runs Sept. 9-10 at the Mestil Hotel and Residences. It is organized by the Uganda High Commission in Abuja with the two governments and is built around the African Continental Free Trade Area, the continent-wide pact meant to lower tariffs and ease the flow of goods and services.

“This event is designed to directly connect businesses, resolve trade barriers and unlock the vast potential that exists between East and West Africa,” said Dr. Sam Omara of the Uganda High Commission in Abuja.

That potential is largely unrealized. The most recent figures cited by organizers, from 2021, show Uganda exported about $2.09 million in goods to Nigeria and imported roughly $814,380 — small numbers for two of Africa’s larger economies.

From handshakes to contracts

Ambassador Richard Kabonero, who leads economic and commercial diplomacy at Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the forum was meant to move past speeches and into transactions, pointing to deals already taking shape.

He cited cement investments, 2,000 heifers Nigeria wants to buy, and hides and skins, alongside goods Uganda already ships. “This forum presents us with an opportunity, as the ministry, to help our private sector navigate the West African market,” he said, standing in for the ministry’s permanent secretary, Vincent Bagiire Waiswa.

Kabonero said the ministry was driving the effort under its Economic and Commercial Diplomacy strategy, which tasks Uganda’s foreign missions with finding markets, drawing investment and coordinating government agencies. “From initiation to execution, we hand-hold until the end,” he said. “Working in silos is the gap we are trying to close.”

He framed Nigeria, a market of 300 million people, as a gateway to eight other West African countries served by Uganda’s mission in Abuja.

Aviation opens the door

Air links are central to the plan. Uganda Airlines, which already flies to Lagos and Abuja, will begin four weekly flights to Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 27. Ghana hosts the AfCFTA Secretariat, making Accra a strategic node for east-west trade.

Kabonero pressed Nigeria’s envoy to grant so-called fifth-freedom rights that would let Uganda Airlines fly passengers and cargo directly between Abuja and Accra, rather than only to and from Entebbe. “As soon as we can do that, you will see business expand,” he said.

The airline is already carrying goods the other way. In May 2025, Nigeria launched an air-cargo corridor through Uganda Airlines linking Lagos and Abuja with Entebbe, Nairobi and Johannesburg, cutting exporters’ freight costs by 50% to 75%. Nigeria’s non-oil exports to African markets outside its West African bloc rose from $150 million in 2024 to $207 million in 2025, according to Nigeria’s trade ministry.

Where the deals may lie

Stephen Asiimwe, chief executive of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, said Nigeria’s market offered room for Ugandan food, tourism, textiles, fashion and the creative economy.

“We look forward to … opening markets for Uganda’s creative sector, including textiles, fashion and entertainment,” he said.

Kabonero pointed to Nigeria’s advanced film industry — Nollywood and Uganda’s own “Wakaliwood” — and to financial services, noting that Nigerian lenders such as UBA already operate in Uganda.

For John Magney, director of Ugandan firm JHL Production, the timing is ideal. The company makes a liquid iced espresso coffee it already exports to the United States, South Africa, Europe and East Africa, and has lined up an importer in Nigeria.

“We know how big the Nigerian market is for us, and we can’t wait to see it on the shelves,” Magney said, welcoming what he described as the ratification of a tax-free trade protocol between the two countries.

Uganda’s pharmaceutical sector has already shown it can compete, with Quality Chemical Industries Limited exporting to Nigeria.

The barriers ahead

Turning access into sales still means clearing non-tariff barriers, a focus of the forum. Visa costs are one: at the 2024 Uganda-Nigeria forum in Abuja, Ugandan officials said their citizens pay $192 for a Nigerian visa, against $50 that Nigerians pay for a Ugandan one. Mismatched standards are another — Ugandan milk bearing the national quality mark does not automatically meet Nigerian requirements.

Nigeria’s acting high commissioner to Uganda, Misitura Abdulraheem, said stronger private-sector engagement could unlock both economies’ potential under the free-trade pact.

The forum will feature business matchmaking, a Uganda Hub, a Fintech Alley and an exhibition, with a Nigerian delegation touring Ugandan businesses and tourism sites afterward. It is backed by Quality Chemical Industries and Uganda Airlines, alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Uganda Investment Authority, Uganda Export Promotion Board and Uganda Revenue Authority.

Organizers hope the talks yield letters of intent and firm investment commitments — the deals that would show the two countries’ long friendship is finally paying commercial dividends.