President Museveni has revealed that the country is losing about Shs 26.3Bn every month due to the absence of tourism in the country brought about by travel restrictions in light of COVID-19.
The President, who is currently addressing the nation about the country’s steps towards handling the crisis brought about by the coronavirus, admitted that the money is lost and cannot be recovered.
He however emphasised that, in as much, as that loss is there and the gov’t can’t do anything about it, other trades that earn foreign exchange have been ongoing.
“We have lost USD 1.6Bn from Tourism. We cannot lose forex from our coffee, tea, maize, cement, iron bars; that is simply a wrong debate.” Museveni said.
This was in defence of the heavy influx of COVID-19 positive results that have been brought into the country by the truck drivers from Kenya and Tanzania.
“The debate shouldn’t be on whether we should allow truck drivers to continue or stop them. That is a wrong debate. It should instead be about how to ensure they continue doing their job without risking the population.” The President emphasised.
Uganda has 248 COVID -19 cases, where some 189 are truck drivers. So far, 63 people have recovered from the coronavirus.
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