{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Museveni’s bag of goodies for Busoga’s poor voters - News
|
9:10 AM |
No comments |
Museveni's bag of goodies for Busoga's poor voters
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni campaigns in Busoga region. Busoga, formerly Uganda's industrial heart land, has fallen onto hard times due to neglect and privatisation, which have left its once thriving industries in ruins. PHOTO | DICTA ASIIMWE Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni campaigns in Busoga region. PHOTO | DICTA ASIIMWE
Busoga, formerly Uganda's industrial heart land, has fallen onto hard times due to neglect and privatisation, which have left its once thriving industries in ruins.
President Yoweri Museveni, who spent the past week campaigning in the region, took pains to outline the government's plan to develop the region.
The president focused on the privatised sugar factories whose rehabilitation has increased tax revenue and became a source of jobs, even when the majority of people in the region depend on subsistence agriculture. And the effect of this dependence has been that a large percentage of the population in the region lives below the poverty line.
A 2014 report by Development Initiatives, a non-governmental organisation, shows that on average, 40 per cent of the people in Busoga live on less than a dollar a day.
Given that the international poverty line is at less than two dollars a day, the proportion of absolutely poor people in this region could go up to 80 per cent. But President Museveni, while speaking in Buyende, Kamuli, Bugiri, Kaliro and Namutumba, where biting poverty and the lack of primary healthcare facilities conspired to make the region infamous for people dying from jiggers, the president spent most of his time talking about how Uganda could afford anything it prioritises.
"We may not be able to do everything at once, but when we decide on the order, there is nothing we cannot do," he said.
He said prioritisation has already delivered development, which is why there is electricity in every part of the country, with the exception of Buvuma islands.
"Wherever I go these days, I see electricity," he said.
This, he said, signifies development. And it has been achieved because the government realised in 2006 that not enough money was being allocated to the energy sector.
This motivated the increase of allocations to the energy sector from Ush179 billion ($52.9 million) in 2006 to current Ush2.9 trillion ($857.1 billion).
Similar investments have been made in the roads sector. In 2006, the road sector used to get Ush300 billion ($88.7 million), money that wasn't enough to even tarmac the Mbarara-Masaka road.
According to President Museveni, this money has now increased to Ush3.4 trillion ($1 trillion) and caused an improvement in quality of roads, because the rehabilitation of sugar factories in Busoga and the tea factories in western Uganda has enabled the government to receive more revenue.
The increase in revenue has also been aided by the arrival of mobile telephone companies.
0 comments:
Post a Comment