President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has revealed that for Uganda’s economy to accelerate growth, there’s need to be competitive in the products and services they produce.
“Our products and services must be cheaper and of better quality than products from other countries. In order to achieve that, we need affordable electricity which is already being worked on because for you to be competitive, you need cheap electricity,” he said.
The President who was in the company of the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni made the remarks during the reading of the Shs72.136 trillion National Budget for Financial Year 2024/25 at Kololo Independence Grounds.
The Budget Speech ran under the theme: “Full Monetization of the Ugandan Economy through commercial agriculture, industrialization, expanding and broadening services, digital trade transformation and market access”.
President Museveni also noted that the government has already put in place low cost money (loans) for all Ugandans who want to create wealth. He said the money can be accessed through the Parish Development Model (PDM), Emyooga and Uganda Development Bank (UDB).
“I really want to render irrelevant, these money lenders and all those people who suck our people, we shall continue putting money in Emyooga, UDB so that the people who want wealth creation, have soft money which is not very expensive,” the President said.
“Labour is still not expensive. However, to further handle the issue of cost of production that renders products and services cheaper, we must reactive rail and water transport for cargo. This is what is missing now. We have repaired the old metre gauge from Malaba to Kampala and also from Tororo to Gulu – Pakwach. We are going to build the Standard Gauge Railway from Malaba to Kampala and Kampala to Mpondwe. Later, we shall expand the SGR from Gulu-Nimule. The railway will transform our capacity to build wealth because once it’s fully operational, then transport of goods from here up to Mombasa, DRC, South Sudan and Dar-es-Salaam will be cheaper. It will also save the roads because this crowding by the heavy trucks is because the railway is not working. Then the oil pipeline will also solve that problem.”
President Museveni also highlighted that irrigation for agriculture as a strategic intervention will as well stabilise Uganda’s economy.
On the other hand, President Museveni attributed the current slow economic growth to importation of goods.
“You have seen the export earnings this year grew by 38 per cent, from USD 4 billion to USD 7 billion and the rate of growth- 38 percent because we are underutilizing everything. This is the only problem. Uganda imports furniture, can you imagine that? Money is taken to buy dead people’s clothes from outside. We spend USD 800 million on imported textile. Why should we import textile? We had some issues with the people they call traders. What they call traders are importers. This slave mentality should go away, I’m not a slave myself. I have never accepted a slave dependence mentality, that is how we were able to lead our revolution,” he said.
