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Uganda to reach middle income status by 2023, says Museveni
President Museveni. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- With Uganda currently eyeing new areas of the economy including the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, Mr Museveni is now warning public officials.
- Regarding excessive agricultural production, President Museveni touted a new bill.
With Uganda’s economy fully reopened from January 24, President Museveni Wednesday assured the nation that the country will strike above the middle income status GDP per capita minimum of $1, 030 by 2023.
“We want Uganda to be a high not middle income status- which we shall achieve for sure in one or two years,” he said.
Even as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Tuesday slashed its 2022 global GDP forecast to 4.4% Mr Museveni on Wednesday further projected that “in July 2022, Uganda’s GDP per capita will be very near to $980.”
Aware of the obstacles to reaching this fit, Mr Museveni notes that there should be accelerated efforts in major economic sectors like Agriculture, ICT, Service and Tourism.
“We cannot go on talking about this minimalist approach. We must take advantage of the full potential of Uganda’s economy by exploiting the four sectors of wealth creation,” he reasoned.
Under his 36-year presidency, Mr Museveni said the economy expected to be at S44billion in July 2022- has expanded 29 times from a lowly $1.5billion in 1986.
“We have been developing in spite of a growth in human population from 14million in 1986 to 44.2million people in 2022,” he told a gathering at Kololo Independence grounds during Liberation Day celebrations.
Regarding excessive agricultural production, President Museveni touted a new bill.
“We need more and we shall be able to market them either in Uganda or in the region or internationally. The law is being worked on to force petrol companies to mix petrol products with 20-25% of ethanol produced from our surplus maize or sugar and we shall knockout a big amount on the import bill,” he echoed.
With almost all Covid-19 restrictions now lifted, Mr Museveni argued that if all Ugandans woke up, the nation’s economy would rather be more than $586billion by July 2022 instead of Shs44billion.
“You find some areas of Uganda which are already in high income level for instance the group near Fort Portal City that’s now earning Shs240m (about $66,000) per year from just over 1 acre of land,” he said expressing disagreement with “our planners that keep talking of a 7% growth.”
With Uganda currently eyeing new areas of the economy including the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, Mr Museveni is now warning public officials.
“I’m normally polite and hoping that people especially the leaders will pick by themselves but this time I’m going to be rude because we are wasting time,” the 77-year-old political veteran said.
President Museveni announced that he will Thursday launch the Parish Model, an ambitious social-economic transformation agenda that government expects to generate recipients –through private sector interventions- over Shs100million annually.
