By Fidel Boy Leon
In a message delivered on his behalf by Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Robinah Nabbanja at the Third United Nations Conference on Landlocked Developing Countries in Awaza City, Turkmenistan, Museveni urged fellow leaders to dismantle obstacles standing between producers and markets.
For Africa’s landlocked developing countries, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni believes the chain of economic progress is being held back by its weakest link: the persistent walls of tariff and non-tariff barriers that stifle free trade.
This bottleneck, he argues, is the primary obstacle to the free flow of goods, services, and prosperity, and its removal is essential for the entire continent to achieve its full economic potential.
“As long as the market remains fragmented due to tariff and non-tariff barriers; insecurity; poor infrastructure and connectivity; and lack of access to the sea by some countries, Africa’s potential cannot be fully exploited,” Museveni noted.
Landlocked Developing Countries, or LLDCs, are nations without direct access to the sea, which puts them at a structural disadvantage in global trade. The United Nations currently classifies 32 countries as LLDCs, 16 of them in Africa.
In East Africa, Uganda shares this status with countries like Rwanda, South Sudan, Burundi, and Ethiopia. Without seaports, LLDCs depend on neighbouring coastal states for imports and exports, making them more vulnerable to transit delays, high transport fees, and shifting trade policies.
President Museveni believes that modern economies thrive on producing goods and services, but prosperity depends on finding buyers.
“When you produce goods and services, the question is, who buys what you produce? That is why the issue of producers and consumers is at the centre of modern economies.”
With Africa’s 1.5 billion people representing one of the largest untapped markets in the world, Museveni argued that removing trade barriers could unlock transformative growth. He commended the Awaza Programme’s five priority action areas, structural transformation, science and technology, trade facilitation, transport connectivity, and climate resilience, as the right framework for this goal.
Prime Minister Nabbanja, leading Uganda’s delegation to the conference, emphasised Uganda’s push for climate resilience through green industrial policies and adaptive infrastructure.
She called for the timely delivery of the New Collective Quantified Goal agreed at COP29, at least USD 300 billion per year by 2035 for developing countries’ climate action, with developed nations taking the lead.
Museveni’s message was equally clear: being landlocked should not mean being locked out of opportunity.
“Let this be the moment when ‘landlocked’ no longer means ‘locked out,’ but instead signals our renewed determination to be linked in, connected, competitive and committed to sustainable development,” he said.
According to the UN, LLDCs face transport costs that can be up to twice as high as those of coastal countries, cutting deeply into the competitiveness of their goods on the global market.
Uganda, like many landlocked nations, struggles with the absence of direct sea access, which raises transport costs and limits competitiveness. The World Bank estimates that transport costs for LLDCs in Africa add an average of 40 per cent to the final price of exported goods.
For Uganda, shipping a container to Europe can cost over USD 3,000 and take up to 30 days, compared to less than USD 1,500 and under 10 days for some coastal economies. Non-tariff barriers in the East African Community, such as weighbridges, police checkpoints, and inconsistent licencing rules, have been identified by regional businesses as some of the most persistent obstacles to trade growth.
Uganda has set an ambitious target to grow its economy from USD 50 billion in 2023/24 to USD 500 billion by 2040.
Museveni called for concessional loans from developed nations to finance critical infrastructure for landlocked countries, stressing that both “hard” infrastructure (roads, ports, rail) and “soft” infrastructure (policy frameworks, trade systems) were essential.
Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedov urged landlocked nations to strengthen cooperation through joint infrastructure projects, digital connectivity, and climate resilience measures.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged the unique challenges LLDCs face and the urgent need for global partnerships to overcome them.
The conference, attended by heads of state, vice presidents, prime ministers, and ministers from 32 landlocked developing countries, concluded with a collective call: break down barriers, link markets, and ensure that no country’s geography dictates its destiny.