On 8 September 2026, representatives from government, development partners and Uganda's BDS community gathered at Hotel Africana in Kampala for a high-level stakeholder engagement and general meeting of United Business Support Professionals Ltd (UBSP), the newly formed association that brings the country's BDS providers under one umbrella.

The engagement was organised by AMEA, the Africa Management Institute (AMI) and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC), with support from AGRA.

Why a professional body matters

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) make up the vast majority of Uganda's private sector, and good business advice can determine whether they survive, formalise and grow. Yet the BDS market that serves them remains fragmented.

UBSP chairperson Kenneth Nkumiro described a sector where each provider brings its own tools and approaches, with no professional body to set expectations or hold practitioners to account. The result is uneven quality, and it is the enterprises and farmer organisations receiving support that bear the cost of poor advice.

Harrison Kaziro, AMEA's Local Network Facilitator in Uganda, pointed to the same fragmentation among development actors. He described cooperatives holding several business plans, each commissioned by a different partner pursuing the same goal for the same farmers. "They act like competitors, but they are serving the same farmers," he said.

Standards and certification: the next step

UBSP's mandate covers professional development, advocacy, partnerships, standards and ethics, and support for members seeking certification. It arrives at an important moment. Two national standards for BDS delivery have been approved by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), and a BDS certification framework is in development.

Kaziro explained that the next phase will focus on facilitating certification for BDS providers. Certified providers will receive a quality mark that helps enterprises and funders identify the right provider for the right service. He also stressed that sectors such as agriculture need specialised providers who truly understand the value chain.

Speaking for MTIC, Johnson Abatekaniza, Assistant Commissioner in charge of Training and Business Skills Development, said the ministry is using stakeholder engagements like this one to streamline the sector. Combined with standards, certification will give providers clear guidelines for delivering services that meet enterprises' needs.

Creating value, not dependency

Nkumiro was clear that BDS must deliver measurable value to the businesses it serves. When providers create real value, the market will pay for their services; when they do not, the sector stays dependent on donor subsidies. He also framed informality as a stage of growth, with good BDS helping enterprises understand what it takes to formalise and access new markets.

He highlighted the value of collaboration within the profession itself. A single business may need support with financial reporting, business planning, compliance, certification, branding and market access at the same time. A connected community of providers, and a platform where experienced practitioners can mentor newer ones, makes that integrated support possible.

Watch the report on UBC Television, Uganda

How this connects to AMEA's work

The Kampala engagement puts several of AMEA's propositions for transforming BDS markets into practice:

• Normes to improve the quality of BDS
• Guiding principles for sustainable local BDS ecosystems
• Standardised assessment for more cost-effective, scalable and integrated approaches
• Collaboration and data sharing to generate synergies and enable learning

Through its Local Network in Uganda, AMEA brings together public sector actors, service providers and farmer organisations to design scalable approaches to a supportive ecosystem for farmers. UBSP represents exactly the kind of locally owned structure that can make those changes last.

Visit the Uganda Local Network page to read more about their work, progress and to get in touch.