President Yoweri Museveni has said that Uganda’s real economy is expanding despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Museveni said that in spite of the obstructions by the neo-colonial actors and foreign backers, Uganda is able to stand up today and weather the storm because of the rightful measures that the NRM government took.
He added that the real economy capacity and potential of Uganda are in; Agriculture, Industry and ICT, adding that the mentioned sectors of the economy will not collapse because of COVID-19.
“The vulnerable portions of the economy have collapsed. However, the real economy is standing up and expanding, especially in agriculture and industry. If we take industry, in just the last few months of this crisis of the virus, by March, 2020, we had only two factories, known as Saraya East Africa Limited and the Luwero Industries making sanitizers. We now have 107 factories,” Museveni said.
He added that by March, 2020, there was not even one factory making masks in Uganda, but as of today, there are 10 certified companies making facemasks and 61 factories have Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to certify them.
Museveni said this while delivering the State of the Nation Address to Parliament from State House, Entebbe via Zoom meeting.
Parliament recently amended the Rules of Procedure to provide for a virtual parliament. This is in fulfillment of the Constitutional requirement under Article101 (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. He added that Uganda continues to earn about US$2 billion from agriculture every year from Agriculture which has remained the backbone of Uganda's economy, employing 70% of the population.
He also acknowledged how the ICT sector is growing; employing 1,282,818 persons with 380,896 companies engaged in information technology, telecommunications, broadcasting, postal and courier and audio visual.
Other Keys Points from the President’s Address:
• Food distribution for the genuine groups will continue until the problem of lockdown is over.
• Government will not allow landlords evicting tenants on account of not paying rent. Discussions have started with both groups & a solution will be found.
• Government has built a Gold Refinery at Entebbe earning the country US$1.256 billion per annum.
• Government has injected Shs1trillion to Uganda Development Bank to give low interest loans to anybody that wants to go into manufacturing and commercial agriculture.
• Uganda is still standing and coping up with the virus (COVID-19), the landslides, the rising water levels in the lakes, the locusts, the floating islands, the security of the country, the crime, the feeding of people etc.
