Kampala Uganda 19/8/2020, The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) in conjunction with the World Bank launched its preliminary results from the first High Frequency Phone COVID 19 business survey report. The launching of the report was presided over by the Executive Director of the bureau Mr. Chris N Mukisa and a representative from the World Bank office in Kampala.
According to the business survey, overall gross business output went down by over 20.7% in the month of April 2020. This reduction in economic activities was mainly due to the corona virus disease (COVID- 19) pandemic which led to freezing of most sectors of the economy. The survey became apparent due to the need to provide relevant indicators to effectively monitor and evaluate government policy and decision making. UBOS will regularly conduct the COVID-19 impact assessment survey (IASs) for a period of 12 months to determine the performance of Uganda’s economy in terms of production and business operation dynamics.
The surveys covered formal establishments and have two modules. Namely: the production module and the business Operations Dynamics Module. In the first phase of the survey, data was collected for the reference period between 25th of March and April 30th, 2020. In this phase, administrative data for a total of 25,616 private establishments and 324 public institutions was used to compute estimates of the monthly gross output for the production module. The business Operations Dynamics Module covered a sample of 2,377 private business establishments which were subject to telephone and email interviews. A total of 1,182 private establishments responded, giving a response rate of about 50%.
Highlights of the findings:
- Overall estimated gross output went down by 20.7% in the month of April 2020
- 4% of the businesses closed operations during the April 2019 lockdown period.
- About 34.8% and 34.5% of the manufacturing establishments operated between 26 -50% and 51-75% respectively utilization capacity.
- 1% of the establishments introduced new products during the period.
- 5% of the establishments reduced their payroll size as a result of the lockdown.
- 8% of the sectors of the economy put in place safety measures in order to mitigate the COVID 19 pandemic.
A more detailed copy of this report can be obtained from the website: https://microdata.worldbank.org/index.php/catalog/3765
The findings indicate that 42.7% of the establishments reported that their cost of doing business was above the normal range during March and April 2020. On the contrary, 37.8% of the establishments reported that their cost of doing business was below the normal range during the said period.
Notably, 75% of the establishments engaged in Financial & Insurance, 66.4% in the information & communication, 61.6% in transport & storage activities, reported that their cost of doing business was above the normal range during the said period.
