President Yoweri Museveni, alongside First Lady Janet Museveni, officially commissioned the Dei BioPharma Advanced Agro-Processing and Biotech Park in Namasagali, Kamuli District, on Thursday, November 20, 2025. The event marked a monumental step in Uganda’s ambition to achieve self-reliance in the production of medicines and pharmaceutical raw materials.
Phase One: The Cassava Starch Revolution
The highlight of the launch was the commissioning of the $50 million (approx. Shs180 billion) Cassava Starch Manufacturing Plant, which served as the first major component of the sprawling park.
- Pharmaceutical Inputs: The factory was designed to produce essential excipients like pharmaceutical-grade starch, glucose, maltose, and fructose. These ingredients were critical for the production of tablets, capsules, and various food products, with the explicit goal of cutting Uganda’s almost 99% reliance on imported pharmaceutical ingredients.
- Massive Raw Material Demand: The plant has a daily processing capacity of 500 metric tonnes of cassava, creating a vast and guaranteed commercial market for farmers across the Busoga, Bukedi, Teso, and Lango sub-regions.
- Economic Impact for Farmers: Dei BioPharma’s founder, Ugandan scientist Dr. Matthias Magoola, emphasized that commercial cassava farming for the factory offers farmers an income potential approximately three times higher than what is currently earned from sugarcane on the same acreage. The company has already registered over 3,000 farmers and distributed a high-yield cassava variety, Nilocus-1.
A $10 Billion Integrated Vision
The cassava plant was merely the foundation of a much larger, ambitious project: a $10 billion, 10-year integrated biotechnology hub on the 5,000-acre site. The ultimate goal was to transform the Busoga region into a continental hub for pharmaceutical innovation and agro-industrial processing.
Key components of the planned BioPharma Park included;
- Specialist Hospital: A proposed 1,000-bed specialist hospital dedicated to research and treatment of cancers, sickle cell disease, and rare genetic disorders. Dr. Magoola announced that the facility aimed to leverage Uganda’s WTO status to manufacture advanced gene and cell therapies locally, potentially cutting the cost of treatments like a full sickle cell cure from over $2 million to between $10,000 and $50,000.
- Vaccine Production: A planned facility to manufacture vaccines, including a Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine and other key veterinary and human vaccines.
- APIs and Derivatives: Production units for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and the extraction of over 100 high-value derivatives from cassava, maize, and potatoes.
Presidential Endorsement and a Call for Innovation
During the commissioning, President Museveni praised Dr. Magoola for his innovation and resilience, highlighting his years of support for the scientist’s pharmaceutical ventures, which began with his work on a malaria remedy.
“I don’t know why Africans don’t like innovation… Africans like to criticize. Congratulations, Magoola, forgive those disturbing you. That’s how I started fighting, and people thought I was mad.”
— President Yoweri K. Museveni
The President stressed that industrialization, driven by such projects, was the key to job creation and national prosperity, noting that established industries in Uganda already employ more people than the public civil service. The project was seen as a decisive move towards positioning Uganda as a significant player in the global pharmaceutical market, capable of meeting stringent standards like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The launch of the Dei BioPharma Park was a powerful statement about Uganda’s future economy, bridging agriculture and cutting-edge biotechnology.
