Uganda branch manager Joshua Ng’ang’a of Nakumatt, a Kenyan supermarket chain said at least commodities in the Ugandan supermarkets would see about 20 percent cut as the imports were overpriced to the tune of same percentage. Besides discounted prices, improvement in quality and increase in variety of items is also anticipated from the start of the common market since producers will have to compete with similar business entities among the EAC member states.

Ng’ang’a argued that one of the other reasons for price reduction apart from competition would be the elimination of middlemen from the procurement scene, allowing the supermarkets to directly source from the producers or manufacturers. According to East African Business Week, the leading supermarkets in Uganda are tight-lipped about the future developments in the retail sector.

Last November, the member states of the EAC signed a common market protocol, aimed at expanding the existing customs union. It is commonplace to economies those form blocs to envisage increased competition along with the free movement of services, capital, entrepreneurship and labour across the member states.

In the absence of trade barriers, the architects of the common market expect the businesses in the region to flourish across borders. All five countries have already adopted a common external tariff, an identical tax applied to imports from outside the bloc, and allowed duty-free regional trade with the exception of Kenya, the largest economy. The EAC also has plans of floating a common currency within two years.

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The disease-spreading ability of mosquitoes has been constantly a threat to majority of developing countries as they inflicted great productivity losses to these economies by hamstringing communities with illnesses such as malaria, dengue, etc. These vectors have taken the lives of largest number of people in the recorded human history by spreading diseases more than any other natural calamities or illnesses.

One of the latest 78 grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support innovations in global health in 18 countries towards Okeng’s effort has to be seen as an endorsement for the continuance and efficacy of the plant research. The professor, who is assisted by his colleagues Dr. James Kalema and Dr. Mary Namaganda, has received a grant of $100,000 from the foundation to help the Ugandans to grow these plants in their yards to keep mosquitoes and related diseases at bay.

Okeng apprised that malaria was the biggest killer and contributor of poverty in Africa and Uganda. “When people are sick, they are unable to do productive work. They spend all their money in treating malaria. Our target is to reduce poverty as well as increase incomes,” he explained.

The professor claimed the idea was the first of its kind in Uganda and the world as well. He described that he acquired the knowledge of insect-eating mosquitoes in the 1960s as a student interested in animal and plant biology.

He revisited the idea when there was opposition to the nationwide spraying of households with DDT, an insecticide toxic to animals and humans, to control malaria. “We want people to have choices and shift from using insecticides,” he added.

The plants are said to be very effective in killing any flying insects like house flies, moths, aphids or mosquitoes, and initial studies show bees are not been ensnared. However, the team has informed that the plants will be promoted only after a conclusive study on the effect of these on the bees. This is the first time the plants will be cultivated and utilised in disease control though people knew about these insect-eating plants existed in Africa long ago.

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The new plan, which would be supplanting the bombed “Vision 2025″ has been largely blamed for its timing as elections less than a year away neither allows to check the efficacy of the program nor could be implemented to any degree. The NDP is expected to transform Uganda from a peasant to a prosperous country within the next 30 years with emphasis on agriculture, infrastructural development and food security.

The failure for “Vision 2025″, launched in 1999, is cited as lack of funds and absence of constitutionally mandated body, such as National Planning Authority (NPA) who drafted the NDP, to coordinate it. Though repeated failures of several plans haunt the Ugandan psyche, experts believe that this one would materialize particularly as the Ugandan economy is better placed than it was 10 years ago, and since the economic growth would be further boosted by oil profits.

The NDP fundamentally departs from the failed Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) which was initiated in the late 1980′s with the recommendation from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under SAPs, the government sold most of the state-owned enterprises to the private sector including co-operative banks which supported agriculture sector that employed 73 percent.

SAPs literally brought the Ugandan economy to a standstill with no progress in infrastructure and other spheres those required constant care. Nonetheless, the NDP that advises a conversion from market economy to a quasi- market economy will be more of public-private partnership than government becoming a namesake watchdog of the economy.

During the recent launch of the new plan, the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni presented evidence as to how these milestones would be achieved. He observed the projected oil earnings and tax revenues would suffice for tiding over fiscal deficits and developmental plan implementation.

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