Peter Muindi Musau, Fine Spinners Uganda Ltd’s chief finance officer displaying some of their manufactured garments, which are mainly exported and sold abroad at Bugolobi in Kampala on August 12, 2026. Photo: John Ricks Kayizzi, bird story agency
Uganda produces cotton and has a large market for fabric, but much of the value is still created elsewhere. Manufacturers say investment in spinning, weaving and garment production could lift exports, create jobs and help drive double-digit economic growth.
By John Ricks Kayizzi, bird story agency
11 September 2026
Uganda could move towards double-digit economic growth by attracting more textile manufacturers to turn its cotton into yarn, fabric and garments, according to an industry executive who says the benefits would extend far beyond factory floors.
Zirandra Singh, the acting general manager of Southern Range Nyanza, also known as Nytil, said new textile plants would create jobs while generating demand for locally supplied services.
“Employment will shoot up, and consumption of local supplies such as water and electricity will rise tremendously. This will turn the Ugandan economy around,” he said.
The proposition rests on an opportunity Uganda has yet to fully capture. The country grows cotton, has an established base of ginneries and consumes more than 250 million metres of fabric a year. Yet much of its lint leaves the country before it is converted into higher-value products, while imported fabrics, garments and second-hand clothes supply a substantial share of the domestic market.
For manufacturers already operating in Uganda, that gap represents room for new factories, greater production and thousands of additional jobs.
Peter Muindi Musau, chief finance officer of Fine Spinners Uganda Ltd, said exporting cotton in raw form transfers the more valuable stages of production, and the employment they support, to other countries.
“Many foreign companies and individuals are known to come here and buy our cotton as raw materials, take it to their countries, add value, and export it back to us. Through this, they take away local jobs and forex which would have remained here,” he said.
Fine Spinners produces about 2.5 tonnes of cotton yarn a day and plans to increase this to four tonnes a day by the end of 2027, according to Musau. The company employs about 700 people directly and hundreds more indirectly.
“If we boost our capacity, this figure will spiral, and the local economy will benefit immensely,” he said.
The company has already demonstrated that garments made in Uganda can find buyers beyond the domestic market. Musau said Fine Spinners exports to Denmark, France, Rwanda and Burundi.
Southern Range Nyanza offers another example of what sustained investment can produce. The Jinja-based manufacturer has invested more than US$45 million since 1996 to revive and modernise its plant. It has supplied uniforms to Uganda’s armed forces and other public servants under the Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy.
Jain Mukesh, managing director of Alpha Woolens Uganda Ltd, said his company also plans to support cotton growers in northern and western Uganda to expand production and improve their livelihoods. Such links between farms and factories would be critical if manufacturing capacity grows: mills need a reliable supply of quality lint, while farmers need dependable markets.
A large market waiting to be supplied
Uganda’s domestic market strengthens the investment case. The country consumes more than 250 million metres of fabric annually, based on an estimated requirement of six metres per person in the 2009 National Textile Policy, according to the 2022 Economic Policy Research Centre Brief (EPRC).
“This demand provides an opportunity for local manufacturers to expand production and capture a market that is currently supplied substantially through imports,” the brief stated.
The brief also says that the Southern Range Nyanza and Fine Spinners together have an installed capacity of about 2,450 spindles, produce approximately 920,000 garments, and employ more than 3,470 people, 43% of them women. Those figures show the sector’s existing contribution, but also the scale of the market still available to new and expanding manufacturers.
Uganda produces about 15,000 to 25,000 metric tonnes of cotton lint a year, roughly 68,000 to 116,000 bales of about 200 kilograms each, according to the Cotton Development Organisation, the government agency responsible for developing the crop. Cotton is the country’s third-largest export crop after coffee and tea.
The Cotton Development Organisation estimates that the sector supports more than 2.5 million people directly and indirectly. Most work at the lower-value end of the chain in farming, input supply, cotton buying, transport and ginning. Investment in spinning, weaving, knitting, finishing and garment production could shift more workers into higher-value and potentially better-paid activities.
The gains increase at each stage of processing. The EPRC brief cites a participant in a cotton policy dialogue who estimated that cotton lint fetches about US$1.40, yarn US$3, fabric US$5 and T-shirts or similar finished products as much as US$12. The units were not specified in the quoted comparison. Still, the progression illustrates the researchers’ wider point: more of the final product’s value is captured as cotton moves through the manufacturing chain.
The brief estimates that Uganda could earn between US$650 million and US$750 million a year in export revenue if it shifted fully from raw lint exports to finished garments. This is a projection rather than current earnings, and achieving it would require investment, competitive factories, reliable infrastructure, skilled workers, and access to regional and international buyers.
Building a competitive industry
Uganda’s policy direction increasingly supports that shift. The government has identified agro-industrialisation as a route to attracting large-scale manufacturers and creating productive employment. Its approach combines import substitution, reducing reliance on imported textiles and second-hand clothing, with a push to export finished textiles, medical-grade cotton and apparel.
The Revolving Lint Buffer Stock Fund is intended to keep cotton available for local factories instead of allowing most production to be exported immediately as raw lint. The Uganda Development Corporation has also been capitalised to support manufacturing and strengthen domestic value chains.
Jolly Sabune, managing director of the Cotton Development Organisation, said the government has introduced incentives to promote local value addition, but that more measures are needed if Uganda is to meet its ambitions.
Policy support alone will not guarantee success. A cotton, textiles and apparel strategy developed by the National Planning Authority and Msingi East Africa attributes Uganda’s weak apparel-export performance to low factory efficiency, inconsistent product quality and failure to comply with international standards.
“While Uganda is in a position to sell its cotton lint, the recommended action is for it to sell quality value-added yarn and fabric into the region and to become a primary producer of apparel for the domestic, regional and international markets,” the strategy says.
The 2025 EPRC policy brief argues that investment is particularly needed in spinning, weaving, knitting and garment production. It recommends incentives for private investment in cotton processing, greater use of locally grown cotton and a supply chain capable of supporting garment makers.
“Value addition could create better-paying and more sustainable jobs, especially for women and youth,” the researchers wrote.
Uganda therefore has many of the foundations of a larger industry: locally grown cotton, existing manufacturers, a sizeable domestic market and access to regional buyers. The opportunity identified by Manesh and other manufacturers is to connect those pieces at greater scale.
If Uganda can attract factories that meet international standards and compete on price and quality, more of the cotton crop could be processed at home. That would allow the country to sell products worth more than raw lint, retain more jobs and foreign exchange, and test the industry’s claim that textiles can become a significant engine of faster economic growth.
bird story agency
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