The government will explore setting up a Shs500bn fund for science and innovation, President Yoweri Museveni said last week while warning the revenue authority against levying taxes on innovations.
Speaking at the National Science Week exhibition at Kololo Independence Grounds, the president said the funds would be allocated annually as seed capital to innovators.
“I toured the different stalls at the National Science Week in Kololo. I congratulate the scientists and entrepreneurs on the promising innovations they are developing. The government will support them in their effort to help transform the country socially and economically,” Mr Museveni said on Twitter.
The president said the government had recently allocated more than Shs1tn to the community development model and could also able to provide “the 500bn minimum funding that they (scientists and entrepreneurs) are requesting. The annual allocation of this money can be provided through the government’s seed capital.”
However, he urged the science and technology ministry to “bring the private sector on board” to provide “additional venture capital” for science and innovation projects.
Mr Museveni also criticised his government for taxing innovators, saying the innovators had not highlighted the issue, otherwise it would have stopped.
“Why tax innovation? There’s no logic, because even if a product is not an innovation, we give it a ten-year tax holiday. Something that is already known, but you bring it to Uganda for the first time, we give you a tax holiday for ten years. How can we, how can anybody tax a baby when you are not taxing adults who have just arrived on the scene,” he said in a speech at the exhibition.
The exhibition, which ran from 6 to 11 November, was organised by the science, technology, and innovation secretariat in the office of the president, and aimed to showcase “our (Uganda’s) science-led journey towards socio-economic transformation.”
Monica Musenero, the minister of science, technology, and innovation, said the sector contributes 50 per cent to economic growth, and should be key to efforts to transition to a modern economy.
