The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Monica Musenero has revealed that Dei Bio Pharma company that has so far received over Shs723Bn taxpayer’s money, is set to start the exportation of its drugs outside Uganda at the end of this year, after receiving approvals from National Drug Authority.
Musenero made the revelation while appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Government Assurance, where she had appeared to provide an update on the promises her Ministry made to Ugandans.
“We have partnered with Dei Bio Pharma, and Government has taken in shares. This is the biggest pharmaceutical facility on the continent of Africa, we hope to start shipping out medicines before the end of the year because National Drug Authority has cleared us,” explained Musenero.
The development comes at the time when recently, Leader of Opposition, Joel Ssenyonyi asked Government to reveal details of the agreement it signed with Dei Bio Pharma, after the owners of the company revealed plans to repay the UGX723Bn it obtained from taxpayers, yet at the time of approval of the funds, Gov’t denied existence of such an agreement.
During the Committee meeting, Musenero also revealed that Uganda has so far received over Shs7.3Bn through sale of diagnostic kits to both Mulago National Referral hospital, and outside Uganda in a research that started at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
“When you go to Mulago Hospital now, that diagnostic kit used to test you is made here by our scientists and we have started making impact on the continent. We manufacture the proficiency panels for all these countries arising out of this work, which we started in 2020/21 and this has brought us about US$2m (Shs7,301,500,000) in revenue,” said Musenero.
The Minister revealed that the Ministry has been able to attain all this success by emphasizing what she termed as “Brutal integrity” by ridding the Ministry of any corruption tendencies, in order not to compromise the quality of products released on the market.
She explained, “We have learnt from nations that have used science that the moment you bring, even a tiny bit of corruption in Science, Technology and Innovation, so once corruption comes from decision making, financial things, it will show up in your product. So since we are aiming to sell products, we have put there what we call brutal integrity.”
Minister Musenero also revealed that although many Ugandans criticized her Space project as wastage of money, she defended the project describing it as a strategic project for Uganda’s future noting, “Many people have been telling me, Musenero why are you wasting time in Space when Uganda is still down here? This is a strategic intervention, it also has a big economy built around it, but it is a very strategic intervention, especially in the times where we live.”
The Minister also called for Uganda’s increased investment in Artificial Intelligence in order to protect itself from abrupt shutdowns by the developed nations when they choose to do so, and warned Ugandans to brace themselves for increased spending in payment of soft wares even for those they have been using freely as WhatsApp.
She said, “We are mostly swallowed up by Artificial Intelligence and we most usually talk about literacy and how to use it, but there is a huge economy behind. I can predict from now, all of you will be spending at least US$1000 paying for software of different types because the Microsoft applications which you buy once are going to be over. You have to subscribe for 365 days, they have started interrupting. Those Google accounts, you will start paying. Actually, now, if you don’t have a one drive subscription, Microsoft starts interfering, even those WhatsApps, those things you are going to start paying.”
“They have made you dependent on it and you will find that a big chunk of your money is going on those online platforms. And that means that anybody anywhere, can choose to shut us off. They can choose to shut off our banking system, they can choose to shut off our Uganda Airlines, or choose to shut you off because they don’t like you,” added Musenero.
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