Uganda on course to manufacture microchips, semi-conductors – Dr Cosmas Mwikirize

At this year’s National Science Week at Kololo Ceremonial grounds, Uganda’s ambitions echoed loud and clear: not only is the country ready to bring its innovations to market, but it is also eyeing global participation in the innovations sectors like electronic and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Two bold claims, one about Uganda’s ability to manufacture semiconductors and the other about scaling up domestic electronics production drew both excitement and skepticism. Frank Kisakye sat down with Dr Cosmas Mwikirize, the superintendent of industrial value chains at the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretariat (STI-OP).

The National Science Week has become a flagship event under your watch. What strategic purpose does it serve in advancing Uganda’s STI agenda?

The National Science Week is Uganda’s premier event for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI). It offers a national stage for Ugandan innovators to display the tangible outcomes of their work, ranging from prototypes to fully developed products and industrial processes.

This year’s theme, “Made in Uganda – Innovation to Market,” was not just symbolic. A highlight was the “Made in Uganda” Supermarket, an innovation marketplace exclusively stocked with domestically developed goods, each a testament to the growing capacity of Uganda’s STI. But the Week is not only a showcase.

It is also a meeting ground for Uganda’s entire STI ecosystem, bringing together government institutions, academia, industry leaders, investors, and the public, towards breaking down silos, fostering collaboration, and enabling policy and investment conversations that move promising innovations toward scale.

This Year, more than 70 foreign investors participated, generating actionable leads and partnerships for Ugandan innovators. Beyond the business and policy engagements, National Science Week also serves a strategic public purpose: raising awareness about the role of STI in Uganda’s development agenda.

It reflects the government’s broader push to ensure that STI is not an abstract concept, but a driver for socio-economic transformation. Perhaps most inspiring is the impact on Uganda’s youth. This year, over 4,000 students from primary and secondary schools attended, many encountering live demonstrations of innovation for the first time. The exposure often ignites a mindset shift, one that helps young people see themselves not just as learners, but as future problem-solvers and innovators.

President Museveni tasked the STI Secretariat with driving Uganda’s economy to a projected $550 billion by 2040. Based on your current assessment, are we on track to meet this ambitious target?

Absolutely, but with caveats that underscore the urgency of sustained effort and strategic alignment. To reach the ambitious target of a $550 billion economy by 2040, Uganda must double the size of its GDP roughly every five years. It’s a steep climb.

When Vision 2040 was launched in 2010, the economy stood at approximately $25 billion. Since then, the economy has only doubled, meaning the real sprint lies ahead. The next fifteen years must deliver nearly a tenfold expansion, a scale of transformation that cannot be achieved through a business-as-usual approach.

Fortunately, we are not operating under the status quo. Significant investments in STI are beginning to bear tangible results. Companies like Kiira Motors Corporation are developing electric vehicles designed and manufactured in Uganda, while Dei Biopharma is advancing pharmaceutical production with ambitions to serve regional and global markets.

These ventures are no longer aspirational: they are operational. This is why STI, broadly defined to include digital technology and the creative economy, has been officially recognized as a central pillar in Uganda’s growth framework.

Alongside agro-industrialization, tourism, and mineral development (including oil and gas), STI forms part of the government’s “ATMS” strategic focus. Yet unlike the other sectors, STI is expected not just to stand alone but to power and multiply gains across the rest of the economy. Are we on track?

Certainly, although the distance to the $550 billion mark remains significant. But the foundational elements have been laid: a national innovation ecosystem has been formed, anchor projects are gaining traction, and the policy and investment environment is becoming more intentional. We are, in many ways, at an “elbow bend” on the growth curve, a moment where early momentum must be converted into sustained acceleration. The road ahead is demanding. But the commitment is firm and failure is not an option!

STI have often been referred to as key drivers and enablers of economic transformation. Could you highlight some specific STI contributions to national development so far?

Uganda’s push to embed STI at the heart of economic transformation began in earnest in 2021, when the government made strategic shifts in its STI governance framework. The most notable change was the establishment of the Science, Technology and Innovation Secretariat under the Office of the President (STI-OP), a move designed to accelerate STI’s real-world impact on national development.

Since then, we have embarked on a period of “action learning,” a deliberate, experimental approach to identifying and scaling what works. In many ways, Uganda’s STI ecosystem is itself a young innovation, still evolving but already generating notable results. In just four years, STI-OP has helped catalyze the creation of over 70,000 high-quality jobs, attracted Shs 3.4 trillion (approximately $900 million) in venture capital, and facilitated the training of more than 2,900 specialized industrial scientists.

A growing web of national and international partnerships has also been woven to sustain momentum and deepen technological capacity. One standout example is Uganda’s rapidly growing electric mobility ecosystem. Through coordinated efforts, more than 80 stakeholders across the value chain, ranging from Kiira Motors Corporation to parts suppliers for two- and three-wheelers, have been mobilized. Uganda now boasts a vehicle manufacturing capacity of 10,000 units per year.

Twenty-one enterprises are engaged in the production of key components, including tyres, brake pads, batteries, and electronic systems. The sector has already generated over 10,000 direct, highly specialized jobs and attracted more than $160 million in private investment, with long-term commitments nearing $800 million.

In the Pathogen Economy, broadly representing the local development, manufacture and commercialization of Healthcare inputs, Uganda is emerging as a continental leader in diagnostics. Scientists at Makerere University developed a PCR testing kit that has enabled over two million COVID-19 tests, cutting costs by half compared to imported alternatives.

The savings, estimated at around $37 million (Shs 140 billion), represent a significant achievement in import substitution. Meanwhile, companies like Microhaem Scientific are manufacturing rapid diagnostic tests for malaria and HIV, which are already in use across our hospitals.

As the coordinating entity for STI across various MDAs, what major strides have you made in shaping administrative frameworks, legislation, and innovation policies to support this ecosystem?

The Government of Uganda has adopted a program-based approach to national development, and STI now occupies a central position within this framework. At the heart of this effort is the Innovation, Technology Development & Transfer (ITDT) Program, led by STI-OP.

What makes the ITDT Program distinctive is that it treats STI not as a standalone sector, but as a foundational lens through which all economic transformation should be viewed. In other words, STI is not merely one area of investment, it is the engine driving progress across nearly every sector of the economy. This vision has guided the creation of Uganda’s National Science, Technology and Innovation System, a cross-cutting structure that connects nearly all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).

STI-OP acts as the coordinator of this system, ensuring that innovation-related interventions in priority value chains are aligned with the relevant public sector actors and development priorities. To provide strategic direction, STI-OP has developed a national STI strategy, which articulates Uganda’s long-term vision for STI, outlines priority focus areas, defines implementation pathways, and maps out coordination mechanisms that enable the ecosystem to function with coherence.

Regarding policy and legislation, STI-OP has taken a deliberately cautious approach. While legislation can offer stability, science and technology evolve rapidly, and premature codification risks ossifying frameworks that may soon become obsolete. Rather than rush into laws that may not suit the dynamism of the STI landscape, the Secretariat has embraced a phase of active learning, drawing on lessons from over 30 countries, including both global success stories and instructive failures.

With this knowledge base, Uganda is now better positioned to introduce targeted policies and laws that are facilitative, not restrictive, designed to empower innovation rather than constrain it. These will be introduced gradually and thoughtfully, grounded in practical realities and international best practice, as our STI system matures.

You previously cited World Bank research indicating that many Ugandan innovators are stuck at the basic research phase, with few progressing to commercialization. What are the root causes of this stagnation, and how can it be overcome?

This is a common question, and a fair one: Why do so many Ugandan innovations seem to stall at the prototype stage, never quite making it to market? The short answer is, our STI ecosystem is still young.

We don’t have the benefit of generations of pioneers who’ve walked this road before. Most of our innovators are the first in their fields. That’s why we use the term “pathfinders”: projects and enterprises whose job isn’t just to succeed, but to clear the bush, lay down a roadmap, and build the kind of enabling environment that others can follow. Take Kiira Motors Corporation, for example. It’s our flagship pathfinder for the mobility industry.

Before Kiira, we had never taken a vehicle from design all the way to manufacturing in Uganda. Now we know, firsthand, what that process takes, from engineering and supply chains to policy and standards. Another example is the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID), which has opened up the potential of turning traditional agricultural produce into high-value industrial goods.

These kinds of initiatives don’t just blaze trails, they pull others along with them. An electric bus, after all, may have tens of thousands of parts, and no single company makes them all. A large industry like Kiira can become a platform for dozens of smaller manufacturers supplying batteries, filters, brake pads, electronics.

That’s the ecosystem we’re trying to grow. But there’s another issue, possibly even more important: knowledge. The skills needed to move from a prototype to a full-fledged, market-ready product aren’t widely taught in our schools. Most of our education has focused on raw material production or consumption.

But here’s the thing, almost all the value in any value chain lies in the middle, in that mysterious realm of value addition and industrial manufacturing. That’s often where our innovators get stuck. We call this the “black box.”

It’s the gap between invention and commercial success, and in Uganda, like in much of Africa, we tend to operate at the edges: we produce raw materials, and we consume finished products, but we rarely control the value in between. And that’s where the real wealth is created, around 90% of it.

So, our current obsession, if I may put it that way, is dismantling that black box. We’re building a critical mass of talent and technical know-how to help our innovators move beyond the prototype, navigate that middle stretch, and finally get their ideas into people’s hands, homes, and markets. It’s hard work.

But it’s the only way to turn innovation into true economic transformation.

There is a growing concern that many STI solutions and innovations are priced beyond the reach of ordinary Ugandans. What strategies are being implemented to ensure inclusive and equitable access to these technologies?

Well, if I may be candid, that concern, while understandable, can sometimes miss the bigger picture. A high-quality product, wherever it’s made, will always find its market, whether in Uganda or globally.

The real challenge is finding that delicate balance between innovation complexity and affordability. That’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, it’s a process. And it’s one we actively walk through with our innovators, from early design to commercialization. That said, our approach to “Made in Uganda” is not built on the logic of low cost or pity purchases.

We’re not asking Ugandans to buy local products because they’re cheap: we’re asking them to buy Ugandan because the products are excellent. The goal is not to make affordability the headline, it’s to make quality the standard.

We want our buses, vaccines, pharmaceuticals, coffee, and industrial components to compete fairly in any marketplace, here or abroad, not just by price, but on performance, durability, and trust. That’s the culture we’re working to embed. Of course, we remain deeply committed to equity and inclusion.

We recognize that a solution that never reaches the average Ugandan is a missed opportunity. So, our strategies include supporting inclusive product design, local manufacturing to reduce costs, and public procurement models that prioritize innovations with public good potential. But we will never trade down on quality just to appear accessible.

In the end, inclusive innovation doesn’t mean making things cheap, it means making them work for the people who need them most, and doing so in a way that maintains quality and excellence.

The minister recently stated that Uganda’s current banking model does not adequately support the STI ecosystem and proposed the establishment of an Innovations Bank. In your view, what would an ideal financial system tailored to STI look like?

The minister is right on the money! (pun intended). Uganda’s current banking architecture was not designed for STI. Traditional commercial banks are wired for low-risk, short-term lending, brick-and-mortar businesses with clear cash flows and collateral. Innovation, by nature, is none of those things. It’s high-risk, often intangible, and usually long-term.

So yes, our innovators are building for the future, but the financial system is still stuck in the past. That’s why the idea of an Innovations Bank isn’t just timely: it’s necessary. But let’s be clear: what we need is not just another bank with a different name. What we need is a new financial logic, a system tailored to the way innovation happens.

An ideal financial system for STI would include patient capital which understands the idea-to-market journey. It would have blended instruments: grants for early-stage R&D, convertible loans for scale-up, equity for commercialization, and government-backed guarantees to de-risk bold ideas.

And it would be agile—able to evaluate IP, talent, and market potential, not just assets on a balance sheet. But even more crucial than capital is capacity. Innovators often don’t fail for lack of money. They fail for lack of the right kind of money, at the right time, with the right support. So this system must come with mentorship, technical assistance, and strong linkages to markets and industrial partners.

Think of it as an entire innovation financing ecosystem, not a loan desk with a logo. We must also remember that the payoff from STI financing is not always immediate, but when it lands, it’s transformative. One successful vaccine, mobility platform, or precision farming solution can impact millions.

That’s the scale we’re playing for. And that’s why we need financial tools bold enough to dream with our innovators and disciplined enough to deliver real value. So yes, we need an Innovations Bank. But more than that, we’re calling for a complete rethink of how Uganda finances its STI.

The Secretariat has set a vision for Uganda to become the most technologically innovative country in the region by 2040. What concrete interventions are currently underway to realize this goal?

If there’s one word that defines our approach to becoming the region’s most technologically innovative country by 2040, it’s intentionality. We’re not leaving this to chance. Our ambition is bold, but our strategy is grounded.

At the heart of our vision is a simple but powerful idea: STI must solve Uganda’s most pressing problems: poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment, while also positioning the country as a source of global excellence. Our shorthand for that vision? Making Uganda the Best. Not “better.” The best. The best products. The best brands. The best enterprises. The best-trained innovators.

The best policies, and the best enabling environment for STI to thrive. And this isn’t just rhetoric. We’re walking the talk. A major step is already underway: the development of Uganda’s first high-tech city, a full square mile of land secured within the Kampala Metropolitan Area. This is a statement of intent.

A melting pot for talent, research, and enterprise. A launchpad for deep-tech ventures and bold ideas. Think of it as Uganda’s Silicon Valley, built for the realities and aspirations of Africa. Around this anchor, we are building the systems that matter: from advanced innovation infrastructure to human capital programs that produce world-class scientists and engineers.

From policies that reward risk-taking and invention, to a national ecosystem that connects government, academia, industry, and youth in a shared mission. We know being the best will not be a walk in the park. But with clarity of purpose, serious investments, and a relentless belief in the power of Ugandan ingenuity, we’re not just imagining the future. We’re building it.

The “Made in Uganda” supermarket is an exciting initiative. How can local manufacturers and innovators onboard their products, and what benefits can they expect?

I’m glad to hear the “Made in Uganda” Supermarket has caught your attention. It’s one of the most exciting expressions of our national innovation spirit: a supermarket for Ugandan products, by Ugandans, for Ugandans.

We first introduced the concept during National Science Week as a live test-run. Now, we’re scaling it. The infrastructure is already under establishment, via a permanent flagship store, along with supporting “dark stores” for logistics and automated vending outlets, starting in the Kampala Metropolitan Area.

The long-term vision? A nationwide network, scaled through a franchise model, bringing visibility and distribution to innovators from every corner of the country. Now to your question: how can local manufacturers and innovators get involved? It’s simple.

If you have a product that’s ready for market, you can reach out to us directly. The STI-OP Helpdesk is open 24/7, accessible via our social media platforms or by email at info@sti.go.ug.

We’re working to make onboarding as seamless as possible and will be releasing comprehensive guidelines across media channels in the coming weeks. I should mention that the real benefit isn’t just shelf space.

It’s visibility, a stamp of national pride, a channel to new customers, and a bridge to investors and partners who are actively looking to scale Uganda’s next big brands.

Concerns have been raised about the quality of locally developed products and innovations. How is the Secretariat addressing quality assurance and standards to enhance competitiveness?

Concerns about the quality of locally developed products are not misplaced, and we take them seriously. Because at the end of the day, quality is the passport to competitiveness. A product is only as strong as the trust it inspires, and trust is built on standards.

At the Secretariat, we’ve made quality assurance a central pillar of our innovation agenda. That’s why we’ve launched an Investor and Market Readiness Program, which walks innovators through the critical steps of meeting both local and international quality requirements, from lab bench to market shelf.

We work hand-in-hand with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), ensuring that innovators receive technical guidance early in the product development process. For pharmaceutical and biomedical products, we collaborate closely with the National Drug Authority to ensure compliance with stringent safety and efficacy benchmarks.

Our goal is simple: when a product carries the label Made in Uganda, it should carry the weight of world-class quality.

You recently stated that Uganda has attained the capacity to manufacture electronic chips, which are key components in digital devices. Why is this a significant milestone for Uganda, and what practical benefits should citizens expect?

Let’s first be clear: we haven’t started manufacturing our own semiconductor chips just yet. But we have embarked on that journey by studying the feasibility of adding value to our quartz, a resource Uganda has in abundance, to produce critical intermediate materials like ingots and wafers.

These are foundational to the global semiconductor industry, and they already command a high-value market. But here’s the real milestone: Uganda now has full end-to-end capacity for electronics design and manufacturing.

We’ve established a state-of-the-art Electronics Manufacturing Facility, equipped with high precision Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) capabilities and a production capacity of 10,000 units annually. Already, seven products, marketed both locally and internationally, are rolling off the line.

For the first time, a Ugandan startup or engineer with a working circuit design doesn’t need to look to Shenzhen to bring it to life. They can do it right here, at home. We are already designing and manufacturing electric meters, industrial control systems, computers, and a range of domestic appliances, all without shipping designs or prototypes outside the country.

Yes, we still import key components like chips, but the capacity to build complete electronics systems on Ugandan soil is no longer a dream. Why does this matter for us? Because it marks Uganda’s entry into one of the most valuable and strategic arenas of the global economy. Electronics power everything, from phones and fridges to smart agriculture and transport systems.

By anchoring this capability locally, we create jobs, reduce import dependence, and open the door for Ugandan-made tech solutions tailored to our own contexts.

We’ve heard of strides being made to establish Uganda’s own AI industry. Can you provide an update on the progress, and what opportunities this presents for the country?

Certainly, we want Uganda to be an active participant in the AI space, making novel contributions, solutions that reflect our realities, solve our problems, and push the frontier of what’s possible from this continent.

This means we’re not content with simply adapting models built elsewhere. We are investing in original research, new architectures, and foundational models born from Ugandan data and expertise.

To support this, we’ve laid the groundwork. One major milestone is the establishment of a local cloud infrastructure that ensures data sovereignty. For a country like Uganda, this isn’t just a technical win: it’s a strategic imperative. It means our data stays on our soil, governed by our laws, and used to serve our people.

That’s the basis of trust and long-term capacity. We’ve also begun developing foundational AI models in partnership with universities and research institutions. These are not plug-and-play solutions, but purpose-built systems tailored to Ugandan challenges, from natural language processing for our indigenous languages to real-time analytics for public services.

And we’re already seeing tangible outputs. We now have AI-powered decision support systems being deployed in healthcare, tools that help clinicians diagnose faster and more accurately, and in agriculture, where intelligent platforms are helping farmers predict pest outbreaks and optimize yields. The opportunity ahead is enormous.

AI can help Uganda leapfrog barriers in education, finance, transportation, governance, you name it.

You’ve also talked about integrating traditional herbal scientists into the formal innovation framework. What has been the experience onboarding them, and what support structures are in place to facilitate their success?

I’m glad you’ve asked this because it touches the heart of what innovation truly means in the Ugandan context. For far too long, traditional medicine, though widely used, existed on the fringes of our health system, trusted by communities, but largely untested, unregulated, and often misunderstood.

Before 2021, not a single traditional herbal remedy in Uganda had undergone a clinical trial. And yet, over 70% of our population relied on these remedies for day-to-day health needs. That meant millions were consuming treatments in raw, unstandardized forms, often without any validated evidence of efficacy or safety.

Today, that story is changing. We’ve established a groundbreaking platform known as Clinical Trials for Natural Therapeutics (CONAT), the first of its kind in Uganda. Through this platform, we’ve successfully completed clinical trials for two herbal products targeting respiratory tract infections.

The pipeline is growing. We’re now advancing investigational products for malaria, diabetes, and cancers, with over 30 candidate herbal formulations at various stages of the innovation process. But it’s important to clarify: clinical trials don’t start with humans. We begin by identifying the active chemical compounds in the herbal product, then move through in vitro (cell/tissue) studies, followed by in vivo testing in animal models.

Only when safety and efficacy have been thoroughly demonstrated do we consider human trials. This infrastructure now exists in Uganda, and it is accessible to all innovators through shared platforms.

As for onboarding our indigenous herbal scientists, the journey has been both delicate and rewarding. At first, many were understandably hesitant: reluctant to disclose their formulations due to fear of exploitation or intellectual theft. But through sustained engagement and legal protections, we’ve built trust.

We now work hand-in-hand with herbalist associations across the country, and have deployed field teams to map and onboard traditional innovators from the grassroots, ensuring none is left behind. Through this effort, most of our herbalists are being supported to move from informal practice to formal innovation, with access to testing, clinical support, and eventually, market entry. Innovation thrives on collaboration.

What partnerships both local and international are being fostered to strengthen Uganda’s STI ecosystem?

Innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It thrives in ecosystems, built on collaboration, shared vision, and the open exchange of ideas, talent, and opportunity. And we understand this deeply. That’s why we’re fostering partnerships, both within Africa and globally, that support human capital development, technology transfer, and collaborative innovation.

Our approach is to work with nations and institutions that believe, as we do, that STI is the cornerstone of future-ready economies. Take human capital, for instance. We’re actively engaging with partner countries to train the next generation of Ugandan scientists, engineers, and deep-tech entrepreneurs.

At the same time, we’re focused on technology development, ensuring we don’t just import knowledge, but co-create solutions tailored to our context. Market access is also front and center. Innovation has to land somewhere. It must reach users, consumers, and industry. That’s why we’re leveraging diplomatic channels to open new doors.

You may have heard of our recent forays into the Balkans and the Middle East, where we’re promoting Uganda’s high-value, innovation-driven products, like value-added coffee, on new global shelves. But we’re also looking inward, to our own continent. The Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a game-changing opportunity. It gives us access to a vast, unified market right here at home.

If we can innovate for African needs, scale within African supply chains, and trade across African borders, then we’ve already won half the battle.

How is the STI Secretariat supporting youth-led innovation, especially among university graduates and start-ups facing funding and mentorship gaps?

At the STI Secretariat, we believe that some of Uganda’s most transformative ideas are already alive, in lecture halls, in campus labs, and in the notebooks of young graduates. Our task is to make sure those ideas don’t die quietly for lack of funding, mentorship, or infrastructure.

We’re building a supportive ecosystem that walks with innovators from the spark of an idea to the shelf of a market. For university graduates, our first touchpoint is mentorship, and we anchor this within the academic ecosystem. Many of the university professors whose labs we fund play dual roles: as researchers and as mentors to student-led innovation.

This creates continuity, from academic inquiry to practical invention. We also work closely with RUFORUM (the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture), which coordinates a specialized program for nurturing university-born innovations.

This program helps students and graduates navigate not just technical refinement, but business development, IP management, and commercialization. Beyond universities, the ecosystem widens. We’ve supported the development of specialized institutions like the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), the Engineering Development and Innovation Center (EDIC), and the Deep Tech Center of Excellence, each offering technical support, prototyping, and incubation capacity for post-university innovators.

Crucially, we don’t see the public sector as the sole driver. We also partner with private-sector-run incubators, recognizing that innovation flourishes best when it’s close to markets, investors, and real-world pressure.

In short, our commitment is to build an ecosystem where ideas don’t get lost in translation, where a bright student in Gulu or Mbarara can follow a clear, supported path to becoming the founder of Uganda’s next great enterprise.

How does the Secretariat plan to balance industrial growth with environmental sustainability, especially in areas like biotech, electronics, and agro-processing?

At the STI Secretariat, we believe industrial growth and environmental sustainability are not opposing forces—but twin pillars of a resilient economy. Uganda’s industrial future must be green by design, not by correction. We are environmental stewards.

This is why our own Kiira Motors Corporation is driving e-mobility, and we have developed a deliberate e-mobility strategy for the nation. But more broadly, we’re advancing bio-based solutions, like biodegradable packaging and eco-friendly inputs that meet our needs without harming the planet.

In electronics, our manufacturing push includes plans for circularity: local repair, e-waste recovery, and energy-efficient design. And in agro processing, we’re minimizing waste, water use, and emissions, turning byproducts into value-added products like biofertilizers and energy.

In short, sustainability is being built into our labs, policies, and funding frameworks. We’re cultivating a generation of innovators who see green not as a trade-off, but as the smartest way forward which will make them even more resilient and competitive.

fkisakye@gmail.com

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