Fellow Citizens,
Last year, the National Resistance Movement Government pledged to the people of Uganda the vision of transforming Uganda from a poor peasant society into a modern industrial, united and prosperous one in a stable, peaceful environment.
We pronounced the vision of Prosperity for All (PfA) or Bonna Bagaggawale. It was a central theme for the NRM 2006 Manifesto. In fact, right from 1995, I have been advising Ugandans to concentrate on homestead incomes, utilizing the good atmosphere created by the National Resistance Movement Government – Kulembeka, jolopii, igai, etc. However, the leadership at different levels has been slow to grasp this point.
With the NRM mandate, I appealed to you for support to ensure that we realize our dream of Prosperity for All, transformation and peace. Our government has a track record of performance and unmatched experience in serving the people of Uganda. We are once again here to deliver with confidence our main pledge that we made to you to fight poverty.
Our major aim was to sensitize our people who rely largely on subsistence production to produce high value crops for the market. The NRM Government has made extensive research to this effect and I am happy to announce that through the Prosperity for All program, our people can comfortably uplift their household standards of living through improved household incomes.
In ensuring the successful implementation of PFA, we focused its implementation on six main pillars; that:
1. Each household must have a daily income;
2. Every household must have a periodic income (3-4 months);
3. Every household must have a long-term income (1 year and beyond);
4. Households be organized in marketing and savings/credit cooperative groups for purposes of achieving enough volumes to attract buyers, processors and for financial intermediation;
5. Every household must have food security;
6. Every household must use improved seeds, improved breeding stock and use modern agro-practices.
The concept of Prosperity for All is, therefore, intended to translate the NRM vision into an agenda of action. Each household in Uganda should be able to meet its basic needs; afford basic goods and services for material and social comfort and be able to earn income of, at least, Ug. Shs. 20,000,000/= (twenty million) per year.
The Prosperity for All initiative is a national programme that is for all: gender, religion, political affiliation, class and districts. This programme is not about free money or hand-outs; it requires hard work and motivation. The applicants will be provided with simple and well-researched information to guide them to make the right choices on what to produce.
Since 1986, the NRM Government has been able to stabilize the economy of Uganda. There has been a tremendous growth in the goods (indigenous and imported) and services (transport sector like boda bodas, kamunyes, buses, lorries, etc.). You, therefore, cannot stand on any road point for more than 30 minutes without getting transport means.
The infrastructure such as roads, electricity, health facilities, telephone, etc, has all been repaired and expanded. If we take one example, for instance, telephone lines, have all been repaired and network expanded. In 1986 there were only 28,000 telephone lines. There are now 2,820,000 telephone lines!!
Therefore, Ugandans in all parts of Uganda have been able to access goods and services. This is an illustration that the NRM government has ameliorated the poverty levels by making most services accessible to the local people especially those in rural areas.
The Private Sector has also been revived. It is this sector that has, partially, been responsible for the supply of the plentiful goods and services. Private owned factories are manufacturing the basic consumer goods (soap, sugar, beer, coca-cola, mitayimbwa, cigarettes, tea, etc). Some factories are export-oriented: processed fish, cut flowers, etc. These factories for producing goods and companies for delivering services (transport, catering, banking, construction, professional services such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc) provide employment for our children (boys and girls).
They also generate taxes that the Government uses to provide free education for our children in primary and secondary schools; to provide immunization for our children; to support the Army that guards our peace; build roads and other infrastructure, etc.
At the individual level, millions of families have become rich. According to the Population census of 2002, 32% of the homesteads are no longer in subsistence agriculture. They are either in commercial farming, services or paid employment (private or public). Besides, recent Uganda Bureau of Statistics surveys have shown that only 31% of the individual Ugandans are still below the poverty line. The other 69% are above the poverty line. This is because of three factors:
Some of the individuals earn income through being employed;
Self employment; or
Government support for the people through education and health programmes.
However, the same Census showed that 68% of the homesteads are still in subsistence farming; they were only producing food for consumption but not for sale.
This means that they are only satisfying some part of their needs i.e. the food needs. If they were engaged in commercial farming, rather than merely subsistence farming, the hard working families and Uganda in general would be more prosperous.
Based on the above facts, Cabinet and the Movement Caucus agreed on how the lifestyle of the above mentioned households can be changed: through the Bonna Bagaggawale – Prosperity for All strategy. Prosperity for All has three crucial elements that must be understood by all Ugandans in the campaign to eradicate poverty especially in the countryside:
1. Let everybody produce food but also engage in cash generating activities. The problem now is that some families just produce for subsistence and, therefore, earn no money. A modern life is based on food and money. Our traditional lifestyle had no need for money. We would produce food and that would be the end. We should have three types of income: money got either from selling milk, eggs etc on a daily basis; seasonally, for instance from coffee, mangoes, etc and then perennially. That is why I do not agree with the NGO’s idea of food security when you have money insecurity.
How will food help you to manage your needs? How will you send children to school? Okay, the government is paying for part of the education of the children, but not all. How will you buy clothes? How will you build a modern house, if you do not have money? Every household must, therefore, have both food and money. There is, therefore, need for all households to adopt the culture of saving in order to borrow. The people, therefore, will have to join SACCOs in order to access the funds that have been provided by the Government. This money will be channeled through the Posta Bank. For areas without Posta Bank services, we shall negotiate with financial institutions for low interest rates that tally with the arrangement of Bonna Bagaggawale: 13% for agricultural activities and 17% for trading purposes per annum. I need to emphasize that this money being lent out by Government to the people, is not a token of appreciation; it must be repaid. It is loaned money.
2. Enterprise Selection: This will be the major focus in the implementation of the Prosperity for All strategy. We need to ensure that those with less than 5 acres of land engage in high-value activities that will generate more money per acre per annum; rather than engaging in low value activities that can only reward those with more land. Our objective is to ensure correct enterprise selection for a zone. Taking into consideration the average household land size, we recommend a package of profitable activities that would generate income that is greater than the annual household expenditure in that zone.
There are some hardworking people, for instance, in Busoga or West Nile, who engage in low-value crops like tobacco. Tobacco should be grown by those with 10 acres, 20 acres, or 40 acres and above if it is to yield good income. That is the same problem with maize in Busoga. Maize is profitable, provided you grow it on a large or medium scale. The person with 5 acres and less needs a different package of activities: dairy farming, fish farming, poultry, fruits, vegetables, etc. I have told you some of the families like the ones in Masaka, where somebody is getting as much as Ug. Shs 50 million in a small area.
Part of the poverty in Uganda is caused by wrong enterprise selection. When you select an enterprise which is not in harmony with the size of land you have, then you will be poor, however hard you work.
If you grow low value crops on a small scale, five acres and less, you will never get out of poverty; low-value crops should be grown on a large scale. On a small scale you need to engage in high-value activities. This is what Bonna Bagaggawale means. We must create a vibrant financially intermediated rural economy linked with the urban, regional, International markets. This is the only way we can transform the rural traditional society into a middle class one, promote industrialization and create employment.
3. We need a bigger programme for the rich, big fellows like Madhvanis, Mehtas, etc. The big plantation owners and farmers also need support in the form of tax incentives, free land that is serviced and lower production costs due to cheap electricity and transport. We have already started on this Bonna Bagaggawale in some areas.
The programme is to cover 30 families per Sub-county as models. In the next two to three years much of the rural economy will be monetized and more factories will be built to process what is produced.
Most importantly, the NRM Government has worked on one crucial factor, which is access to regional and international markets. Through regional integration [East African Community (EAC), Common Market of Eastern and southern Africa (COMESA) and African Common Market], AGOA, EBA; as well as access to the Chinese market, tariff-free and quota-free; the sky is the limit as far as opportunities of growth and transformation are concerned. If we had our own industries, employed our own people and exported finished products, our economy would be in a much better shape that it is today.
The NRM has created most of the factors for Uganda to become a modern country. We are now working on three additional factors:
• Processing agricultural products such as fruits, coffee, milk, bananas, etc;
• Generating more electricity to make manufacturing cheaper; and;
• Having cheaper transport to the sea by reviving the railway.
At the homestead level, we are emphasizing the rural homesteads that are still in subsistence farming. Here, the main problem is lack of sufficient incomes.
The Government is now educating the children free, providing immunization and, even, attempting to provide medicines in the many Health Centre IIIs and IVs we have built in the whole of Uganda.
However, the homesteads need to know why they do not have enough incomes (ebbula lya sente). It is because of two factors: Some of the homesteads are still stuck in the traditional ways of production – just producing what to eat and not producing for cash. Secondly, some of the people engaged in cash crop activities, or other forms of income generation, do so sub-optimally, especially by wrong enterprise selection. In particular, many families have not learnt how to work in a small area of 5 acres or less in order to generate income that is equal to or greater than the homestead’s annual expenditure.
Do you know your homestead’s annual expenditure? How much do you spend on sugar, tea, paraffin or electricity, labour, clothing, education that is not covered by the Government, health transport, etc, per annum? How much land or kibanja do you have?
What enterprise can you engage in, that will give you an annual income that is equal to or greater than your homestead’s annual expenditure. Once you answer the above questions, you have understood the NRM formula for Bonna Bagaggawale.
Let us take the example of our people in Arua. They have, generally, fragmented land. The average homestead landholding is 2 acres. Since colonial times, they have been growing tobacco. However, tobacco is a low-value crop. Out of 1 acre, you get shs. 350,000/= (net) per annum. Shs 350,000/= cannot sustain a family for one year. Worse still, most families do not plant one whole acre. They plant a quarter of an acre. Hence, growing tobacco is a waste of time for the families. Uganda, as a country may benefit from the total tobacco crop from the small holders. However, the individual homesteads cannot benefit. As far as tobacco is concerned, it may be better to encourage the medium scale growers (20 acres, for instance) or the cigarette companies themselves to grow the crops instead of relying on the small growers. If he, however, the West Nile farmer, was to grow fruits in his one acre, he would earn about Shs. 12 million per acre per annum. If he adds on other activities such as zero grazing, apiary, fish farming, silk farming, he can earn far in excess of shs. 20 million per annum.
What is true in West Nile is also true here in Buganda. If you are still growing the old type of coffee, you will get very little. If you grow clonal coffee, you may get shs. 4.5 million per acre per annum. An acre of tea may give you shs. 2.88 million per acre per annum. 1 acre (four fish ponds) may give you shs. 4-5 million (varies with the type of fish), per acre per annum. This is the core factor regarding the problem of poverty. The NRM Government has, therefore planned to up root poverty in rural Uganda by this campaign which we started way back in 1995.
We start with 30 homesteads per sub-county in order to demonstrate to the others that what we are talking about is possible. We select the 30 homesteads according to the speed at which they can learn and adopt the new strategy. We give them the necessary requirements. Additionally, the NRM Government has arranged for Uganda Shs. 8 billion, for this year, for Micro-finance.
This will be lent through the SACCOs, one per Sub-county. These SACCOs will pass on Government money to borrowers and savers at the interest rates not exceeding 13% per annum for crops, livestock, fish farming and artisanship; and 17% for trading and commerce. Besides, we are putting aside a micro-finance fund for the Luwero Triangle bush veterans. This can be accessed, possibly, at the Sub-counties.
The co-ordination of advocacy of the Prosperity for All strategy will be under the Vice President’s office, the Minister for the Presidency and the Ministry of Agriculture.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry will, however, provide guidance in the areas of: industrialization for value addition and assessing the market (local, regional and international) on a daily basis.
The Ministry of Gender Labour and social development will train the community development officers most especially at the Sub-county level. All the ministries must coordinate and support the success of the Bonna Bagaggawale strategy for a common good and, above all, they have the mandate of the people that elected them.
All the NRM Members of parliament and leaders will be the chief mobilisers of the program since they have already been equipped with the right skills to the success of the Bonna Bagaggawale strategy.
Fellow countrymen, we must guard against saboteurs who will want to bring confusion by mixing bad politics and development. They try to frustrate our efforts to fight poverty and to deny you the information to transform your lives for the better. This is a programme for all Ugandans and we must perform collectively or perish in poverty. Let all of us wake up and work in order to become richer.
On behalf of the National Resistance Movement Government it is my pleasure to officially unveil the Prosperity for All programme for all Ugandans.
Thank you.
8th October, 2007
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