Uganda's glossy growth statistics, what is the reality

Uganda’s economy has been resilient withering a lot of storms over some time. The economy has been self-sustaining looking at the basic needs of shelter and food covered especially attributed to favourable weather conditions that enable the production of agricultural produce. Dr. Elly Twineyo Kamugisha the executive director Uganda Export Promotion Board says Ugandans especially in the countryside live in their own homes and grow their food.

At a National level, Uganda’s economic resilience is captured because over 60% life on agriculture supplies agriculture raw materials for an industry whose finished products can be exported thus foreign exchange but also food production have been a major economic stabilizer.

Twineyo claims the Country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in United States dollars accounting for informality and non-marketed output should be above 1100. President Yoweri Museveni has tasked The Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development (MoFPED) to hit a 500 billion GDP in the next Financial as many ask what key areas will need to be looked into to achieve this. “You want to expand GDP, push economic activity in the countryside because most people there are not producing marketed output”. “PDM targets nkolera lubuto (Subsistence category) but even the other population is transhumant participants in the market economy and need to be targeted” Twineyo added.

“The GDP will not be delivered by the public sector but the Private sector” David Walakira an economic policy reiterates.He also adds that whereas there is an upward trend in GDP growth, how fast or the pace of growth is key because many times the growth rates/Targets captured in the national budget framework paper are rarely realized with various reasons he considers valid, the latest victim being COVID 19. “If we don’t, look at what would enable their growth those in the money economy structure for example cost of power, cost of Fuel, Infrastructure, cost of money among others, various economic dreams could be far from being achieved.