Uganda will aggressively leverage high-profile sporting events to market its domestic agro-processed innovations and accelerate rural household wealth creation.
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Thomas Tayebwa, championed the strategic shift on Saturday while representing President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at the inaugural Olympic Tooke Run. The athletic exhibition took place in Bushenyi District to anchor the national celebrations for World Olympic Day. The event paired athletic fitness with commercial advocacy for 'Tooke,' a signature banana-flour brand engineered by the Presidential Initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID).
Delivering the President's executive address, Tayebwa explained that the sports-agro alliance seamlessly fuses athletic health with industrial value addition and national cultural identity.
The head of state expressed satisfaction with the commercial evolution of the banana project. The state-backed initiative has successfully graduated from a laboratory concept into a commercial processing matrix producing premium biscuit lines, porridge mixes, and high-grade baking flour.
“It gives me great joy to see such events because when you see a child grow, you now know that your effort has not been in vain,” President Museveni stated.
The President noted that raw green bananas (Matooke) remain a foundational pillar of Uganda's food security and cultural heritage. However, he emphasized that transitioning from raw food exports to shelf-stable flours will permanently eliminate logistical barriers for global export markets.
“We may no longer need to peel bananas and perform other cumbersome tasks in future since access to Matooke flour will be easy even for those in the diaspora," the President explained. "We are moving forward and we are unstoppable.”
Consequently, the commander-in-chief commended the Uganda Olympic Committee for partnering with the PIBID Director, Rev. Prof. Florence Muranga, to decentralize the international sports celebration to western Uganda. He noted that sprinting to market localized agricultural breakthroughs simultaneously boosts domestic tourism and spotlights rural economic opportunities.
“When you run for Tooke, you promote health because food sustains us and we derive specific nutrition from Matooke in particular,” the President added.
The head of state used the regional sports gathering to demand that citizens systematically abandon subsistence farming in favor of commercial agriculture. He noted that the state has established the necessary macroeconomic stability and processing infrastructure to help families eliminate rural poverty.
“We are promoting active involvement in the money economy and we are saying, grow what to eat and eat what you grow,” the President urged.
The colorful athletic event attracted various regional leaders, elite sports administrators, and thousands of local residents. Organizers successfully positioned the marathon as a competitive platform to foster physical fitness, celebrate local food value addition, and project national industrial pride.
