CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

availability of hotel accommodation. The lack of adequate telecommunications infrastructure
inhibits the cross-border sale of music and films.
Financial services also constrain expansion of this sector in Burkina Faso. Cultural activities
struggle to obtain credit from commercial banks; therefore, they often must function as
partnerships with the government. Banks have difficulty measuring the effective value of
business assets such as copyright, licenses, and royalties, paying little attention to equally
valuable intangibles such as creativity, invention, originality, and talent—the main assets
owned by creative industries. The terms granted to cultural enterprises are often very
unfavourable; this almost obliges the government to step in with both financial support and a
partnership framework.
Finally, no fewer than 16 government agencies or departments deal with some aspect of cultural
services, competing with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. These agencies sometimes
pursue diverging strategies, thus underlining the need to better coordinate a focused intragovernment
strategy.
Case Study 5: Education Services: Uganda
Education services exports have emerged as a major source of foreign exchange earnings for
Uganda following its reform and liberalisation in the early 1990s. The country has traditionally
attracted a large number of East African students; West African students have recently begun to
enrol as well. Education export earnings were estimated at US$ 36 million in 2010. Uganda’s
historically dominant institution of higher learning is Makerere University, ranked in the top
ten universities in Africa in 2014. Currently there are 36 universities and degree colleges in
Uganda sanctioned by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE).
Uganda has primarily exported higher education services through Mode 2 (foreign students
studying in Uganda). However, two Ugandan universities have established branch campuses in
neighbouring countries, with a third in process (Mode 3). Some Ugandan professors also teach
abroad in exchange programmes (Mode 4). However, there are no online diploma or degree
programmes offered by Ugandan educational institutions (Mode 1), meaning that cross-border
trade in education services is not yet taking place.
Government Policies that Made a Difference
The adoption of a 1992 white paper laid the basis for educational reform in Uganda, breaking
the state monopoly on higher education and allowing for decentralisation and the establishment
of private universities. Some two decades later, the large majority of Uganda’s universities are
now privately owned and operated. The private universities host the large majority of foreign
students (84%), with Kampala International University receiving nearly half of the total (fully
44%).
Several government policy documents targeting the education sector have followed the early
white paper. Specifically, the Strategic Framework for Marketing Uganda’s Higher Education
Sector of 2009 made several recommendations to enhance Uganda’s higher education sector to
contribute to export growth and competitiveness. These included developing a single ‘Study in
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