By Evans Najuna
The State Minister for Finance and Economics Planning, Hon. Amos Lugoloobi has praised the Government of Uganda under the stewardship of President Museveni on Parish Development Model programme after poverty levels seen reducing from 20.3% to 16.1% in 3 years. Lugoloobi, made these remark on Thursday while officiating the launch of and the release of Uganda National Household Survey 2023/2024 discrimination report at Hotel Africana in Kampala.
“We have all heard, that in the last three years, poverty has declined from 20.3% to 16.1%. The minister in charge of planning has already indicated to you that this shows how much government has prioritised our people’s economic needs through programs such as the Parish Development Model (PDM)” the minister noted. Reminding fellow NRM and other government officials that political season has already commenced and soon the country will be going into elections. And implored them to separate development issues from the usual politicking. He advised that, this can be done by use these numbers that have been given UBOS to package the message to the public and ensure that everyone gets out of poverty. “If anybody was in doubt of the government prioritisation on the PDM programme, then they should now wake up” Lugoloobi added.
He explained that, a 4% reduction in poverty prevalence over the last years is not a small achievement. Noting that the reduction is also in tandem with the results we received recently from the 2024 National Population and Housing Census which indicated that the number of subsistence households at the national level has reduced from 69% in 2014 to now 33%.
“Uganda is on the right track, and each one of us, especially the majority population of our young people can make use of the existing government programs, access resources” the minister said. Calling them to be disciplined to get out of poverty. “By doing that, altogether we deal with the existing ‘white collar’ unemployment bottlenecks.
Minister Lugoloobi further used the same event and reminded Ugandans that, it is not in dispute that the Government of Uganda appreciates the importance of investing in its people and ensuring that they live prosperous and productive lives.
Explaining that, thats why for instance, the government has continue to support this National Household Survey to understand but also keep track of the performance of government initiatives necessary to eliminate poverty and achieve prosperity. “To prosper, people need basic services such as education, health and transport.
For nearly 40 years, the NRM government has been focusing on attracting investments necessary to create jobs to absorb the entire national labour force” he stated.
On PDM, the minister said all Ugandans are also being domestically empowered to boost food security at a household level but also have enough surplus for commercial and value addition purposes. Although we may not have yet reached where we want to be, we are making steady progress in ensuring that all these areas are given the attention they deserve. The revelations that come with these UNHS 2023/24 results are therefore core in giving direction to our country. We can now reflect on what we have been doing, how we have been doing it and with precision, determine the next course of action.
On behalf of Government, the Minister assured Ugandans that having carefully listened to the numbers from the report, there’s no any reason why any Ugandan should not be proud of the strides as a country is taking under the NRM government?
“As a politician, I am immensely proud of the work we are doing. But as Minister in charge of the national basket, I am glad that more people are entering into the money economy, we are boosting domestic investments and people’s welfare is in steady progress. In return, government will also be able to collect domestic tax revenues to fund infrastructure projects such as the railway, electricity generation, regional airports, roads among others.
Conclusively, the minister applauded the bureau and encouraged them to trigger a widespread dissemination of the UNHS 2023/24 Report Findings at the national and sub national levels to ignite all leaders and citizens to direct the focus towards supporting the government and its programmes to maximise on the benefits and bridge the gaps where necessary to improve the quality of all the nearly 46 million Ugandans. He declared the UNHS 2023/24 Final Report officially received by Government and ready for discrimination.