on Business Register - Uganda Bureau of Statistics

The Statistics Division (later known as the Statistics Department, now the Uganda Bureau ofStatistics) compiled and published a Register of Manufacturing Establishments in 1971. In 1990,prior to the Census of Business Establishments (COBE), a register was compiled although notpublished. In 2001/2002 the Bureau undertook a comprehensive registration of Businesses andthe objectives of this were to:• To create a comprehensive list of businesses to provide a frame for the planned UgandaBusiness Inquiry (UBI).• To use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to provide (as far as possible) spot identificationof each establishment, giving the spherical coordinates (longitude and latitude) of eachbusiness, and also street name, plot and/or block where possible.• To establish a starting point for maintaining an updated list of businesses in the country.The 2001/2002 BR Update:The 2001/2002 BR update covered all businesses with fixed premises where at least one personwas employed, including market stalls, shops and kiosks. All economic activities as listed in ISICRevision 3 were registered, except Government Departments and Embassies. For theAgriculture sector, only formal agricultural activities were covered (Dairy Farms, Tea andSugarcane Estates and the bulk of Commercial Agriculture); unlike in other sectors, whereinformal sector activities were covered, subsistence agriculture was left out. In Education, onlytertiary and pre-primary institutions were covered. Information on primary and secondary schoolswas obtained from the Ministry of Education and Sports, and this data will be used to draw asample for the UBI. Primary and secondary school data therefore reflected in this report issummarized from Ministry of Education and Sports data.Coverage of businesses employing less than five people differed from district to district. InKampala and a number of other districts, all the areas were covered. In the remaining districtshowever, complete coverage was done only in urban areas. In order to identify all such urbanareas, reference was made to the 1991 Population and Housing Census, which listed all urbanareas with a population at least 1,000 people. However, in recognition of the fact that this datawas over 10 years old, and that many other areas had developed into sizeable urban populationsin the intervening years, further advice was sought from district officials as to which new urbanareas should be included.For the formal sector establishments, however, those businesses employing five people andabove were covered wherever they were found, whether in rural or urban areas.All the districts of the country were covered except Kitgum and Pader, because of the thensecurity situation in the said districts.The variables on which information was sought on each establishment included:• Name of establishment;• Activity;• ISIC activity code;• Location;• The Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates;• Telephone and postal contacts;• Employment numbers by Sex;• Type of ownership;• Sex of owners (where applicable);• For enterprises, the enterprise name and ISIC activity code;

• The year when the establishment started operating.The 2006/7 BR UpdateThe Bureau further undertook the update of the BR in 2006/7. The 2006/2007 Business Register(BR) update was an exercise covering all the sectors of the economy except the Public sectorand it aimed at providing an updated list of businesses employing 5 or more persons. This BRsurvey was based on the 2001 to 2002 Business Register which was already in place.Distribution of Businesses by Employment Size Band by Industry Sector (2006/7)Employment Size BandIndustry Sector 0 1-4 5-9 10-1920-4950-99100PlusTotalAgriculture & Forestry 18 12 187 92 45 14 44 412Fishing 1 3 93 21 6 - - 124Mining & Quarrying 2 4 12 6 7 5 3 39Food Processing 11 101 627 238 118 41 64 1,200Other Manufacturing 18 132 1,274 362 192 52 50 2,080Utilities 1 2 2 8 9 4 3 29Construction 5 57 80 63 38 22 17 282Trade 44 1,142 2,753 965 302 47 16 5,269Hotels & Restaurant 29 151 2,365 647 186 18 15 3,411Transport, Storage andCommunications 20 376 300 115 73 19 25 928Finance & Insurance 69 451 358 173 69 27 11 1,158Business Services 40 669 630 210 103 50 36 1,738Education 76 770 831 574 143 17 4 2,415Health & Social Works 142 3,797 879 311 142 37 33 5,341

Employment Size BandIndustry Sector 0 1-4 5-9 10-1920-4950-99100PlusTotalCommunity, Social & PersonalServices 21 219 496 176 91 25 13 1,041Total 497 7,886 10,887 3,961 1,524 378 334 25,467Coding of ActivitiesThe activities undertaken by each Business Establishments are currently coded using ISIC Rev 3.Although ISIC Rev 4 exists the Bureau has not yet converted to this, however efforts areunderway to revise the current coding of activities. In Uganda also unique activity codes weredeveloped to take care of those predominant unique sectors as summarized in the table below.Classifications of Special ActivitiesActivity Description Local Code ISIC CodeISIC Activity Class under which the described activityfallsCoffee Processing 1530 1531 Manufacture of Grain Mill ProductsTea Processing 1534 1549 Other Food Products not elsewhere classifiedManufacture of Jaggery 1545 1542 Manufacture of SugarCotton Ginning 1710 1711 Preparation and Spinning of Textile Fibres, Weaving ofTextilesFoam Products 3695 3610 Manufacture of Furniture