Uganda invests billions in logistics infrastructure — roads, the Standard Gauge Railway, one-stop border posts, the Entebbe cargo expansion. Yet the return on that investment is capped by a constraint nobody can pour concrete over: the uneven competence of the people who run the system.
Today, anyone can call themselves a procurement officer, a clearing agent or a warehouse manager. There is no national benchmark for what these professionals must know, no recognised pathway into the occupations, and no mechanism to remove those who practise unethically.
The cost of the status quo
The consequences are measurable: inflated public procurement losses, cargo delays at Malaba and Busia that cost exporters market windows, warehouse losses written off as “shrinkage”, and a generation of talented young Ugandans who drift into the profession by accident rather than design.
Infrastructure without competence is a highway to nowhere. Uganda’s logistics ambitions need a professional floor.
What a competency framework would do
A national logistics competency framework would define, for each occupation and level, the knowledge, skills and ethical standards required — from stores clerk to supply chain director. It would align university curricula with industry reality, give employers a trusted hiring benchmark, and give the public assurance that certified professionals can be held to account.
This is not a new invention. Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa and the United Kingdom all operate versions of it. Uganda’s framework can learn from theirs while reflecting our own market structure — including the informal sector, which a good framework brings in from the cold rather than legislating out of existence.
Our position
OSCMPS has formally proposed the framework to the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Cooperatives and the Ministry of Works & Transport, offering the CSCP-Ug certification structure as a ready foundation. We are calling on every member to add their voice: read the full position paper and sign the profession’s petition through the member portal.