As Uganda’s oil nascent sector develops in Western Uganda, opportunities for domestic business to diversify and improve livelihoods beyond subsistence agriculture are emerging.

New sectors and businesses spinning off from the oil exploration and soon oil production and refining activities are rapidly emerging in the Albertine region. The opportunities, however, require skills and competences that meet the standards of the sector players, of whom many are foreign. The building of that capacity is a gap that Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) together with various partners is focused on closing. 

During the second week of February 2016, UIA in collaboration with Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI) conducted a wine making skills training in Masindi district. The majority of the participants were fruit growers (mainly mangoes). The hands-on training equipped them with the required technical skills and exposure to appropriate technologies to add value to their products. During the training they learnt how to produce sweet and dry wine from locally available fruits like mangoes, pineapples, and bananas using technical methods.  

The Uganda fruit growing sector is characterised by a lot of fruit loss during bumper harvests due to lack of skills for value addition to fruit produce. It is hoped that this training will save fruit from waste, provide additional employment in Masindi, as well as increase the variety of products and services in the fruit processing sub sector. Forty one (41) participants, mainly fruit growers, from Masindi central, Pakanyi, Buliisa, Kihande, Bubongo, Kirasa, and, Kijura, Masindi District attended the training.

The training was part of the UIA coordinated Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) Technical Skills Training program aimed at building capacities of MSMEs so that they can acquire the necessary basic skills to produce improved and high quality products that attract high monetary values. This in turn improves house hold incomes and promotes industrialization.