Uganda aspires to exploit its abundant iron ore resources to supply the required raw material for developing its iron and steel industry across all the phases of the value chain. The country imports USD 369 million worth of iron and steel products annually, 60% of which are raw materials for the steel processing plants. The National Planning Authority, the government planning agency, undertook a study to assess the possibility of using the iron ore deposits available in the country, as a source of supply for iron and steel production. In the study, available geological literature was collected from various sources and analysed in order to understand the mode of iron ore mineralization in Uganda, particularly, that in the South West. A field excursion to the deposits was conducted in order to ground truth the information obtained from literature research; carry out a detailed reconnaissance study so as to benchmark the likely scenarios required in the development of the iron and steel value chain; and establish the likely mining and processing requirements of the deposits. The reconnaissance survey confirmed the existence of hematite deposits that visually show characteristics of high-quality iron ore (55% -68% Fe) suitable for iron production. From surficial investigations, the deposits are mainly comprised of thin beds of mineralisation. The deposits occur in the form of massive hematite, which is amenable to mining and direct feed to the ore processing plants, and specularite hematite (a metamorphic platy variety), which normally requires mineral processing for amenability to reduction processes. From the analysis, the country has sufficient deposits of a high grade that can support a steel industry, though more detailed quantifications and characterisations need to be prioritised by the government.
The iron and steel industry is critical in driving the industrialisation agenda of 3 rd world economies like Uganda and there is need to understand its growth trends in order to inform the required investments in the medium to long-term. The Capability Model and the system of equations of the Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Models (DSGEs) were employed to forecast the growth trends of Uganda's iron and steel production and consumption (2019-2024). The results of the study show that liquid steel production can be increased from 210,000 tonnes to 1.1 million tonnes per annum by 2024 with measures of industry sustenance and infrastructure investments put in place. Even though there is projected to be an initial fluctuation between 2020 and 2022, due to interruptions during the period of technological upgrade, there is on average, a distinctive steel production growth over the next 5 years. The study recommends fast-tracking the highlighted public and private sector investments in domestic iron and steel production.
Households have a number of saving choices to make and each of their choices has profound implications for the economy and for their standards of living. To investigate the determinants of household choice of saving mechanism, the multinomial logit model is applied. The main conclusion of this paper is that, employment status, household size, household monthly expenditure, education level, age of the household head, residence of the household, and marital status are significant determinants of household saving behavior in Uganda. It is thus recommended that, policy measures for ensuring financial inclusion should take cognizant of the differences in socioeconomic household characteristics like residence of households with regard to rural and urban based households. Further, increasing the level of education is critical for enhancing financial knowledge and is critical for enhancing adoption of formal saving mechanisms. Targeted policy actions to enhance financial knowledge should be critical in enhancing financial inclusion. JEL: D13; D14, D15
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