Basils Business Opportunities to explore for export market in Uganda
A South African Free State company, Basils Business Opportunities, is headed for Uganda to look for the export market for its agro-processing equipment that it is manufacturing at its Bloemfontein-based factory.
The founder and the Director of the company, Mr Basil Phupha will be one of the 25 businesspeople who will participate in the Outward Trade and Investment Mission to Uganda that is organised and funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti).
Basils Business Opportunities is the only company from the Free State that will be part of the mission which will take place in Kampala from 19 - 24 May 2019. The mission will consist of a business seminar, a series of business-to-business meetings, and site visits.
According to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies, the main objective of the mission is to increase bilateral trade and investment between South Africa and Uganda.
Phupha says although this is his company’s first international trade mission with the dti since the establishment of the company in 2016, he is confident that he will be able to find a distributor who can assist him export his products to Uganda.
“Our main goal for travelling to Uganda is to find the market for our products that we can export to the East African country and the region. This is in line with our company’s long-term plan to increase the number of African countries that our products are exported to. Currently, we are exporting to Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho and we are optimistic that we will soon add Uganda on our list as a result of this forthcoming mission,” says Phupha.
In addition to increasing trade and investment between South Africa and Uganda, the mission is also expected to boost efforts of the dti to assist participating companies create job opportunities where they are located. Companies that manage to successfully obtain orders or secure deals with distributors and importers will increase their production and certainly create more jobs to meet the new export demand. Basils Business Opportunities is currently employing six people.
Minister Davies says that Uganda is a strategic partner to South Africa within the East Africa region and enjoys a unique location at the heart of Sub-Saharan Africa, which makes it accessible to the Central and East African markets.
“This makes the country a viable market for business because it has the potential to be a transportation, logistics and transit hub for regional trade and investment,” adds Davies.
