President Yoweri Museveni has told the people of West Nile to stop being
spectators and join the money economy in order to fight poverty and create
wealth.
He made the appeal today while addressing a rally in the West Nile sub-
region on wealth creation.
The President who is on a tour on investment and wealth creation in West
Nile under the theme: “Securing your future through wealth creation and
shared prosperity”, revealed that since 1995, he has been trying to
persuade Ugandans to save themselves from poverty.
“We started with Entandiikwa by sending you money, then we went to
NAADS, then we involved Gen Saleh with Operation Wealth Creation. Gen.
Saleh has had some impact because before him in 2013, the people who
were in the money economy were only 32 per cent; 68 per cent were
outside. We called them spectators. Now the number of spectators has
reduced, it's now 39 per cent out of 100 but even that one is too high. Why
should you be a spectator when others are involved in money making?” he
wondered, adding, “We want spectators in sports but we don't want
spectators in the economy.”
President Museveni also urged the locals in West Nile to embrace the
Parish Development Model (PDM) and explained why the government
decided to come up with such a program.
“Gen. Saleh had done some work but we started hearing complaints that
the soldiers are only sharing among themselves or to their relatives and
that they are buying inferior seedlings and that they are overpricing them.
So that is why we said, why don't you come in yourselves because in all
these programs like Entandiikwa, NAADS, Operation Wealth Creation, it
was government officials buying seedlings and distributing them according
to the way they decided and they were doing it from far,” he observed.
“That is why we said no, let us change. We said let the people do it
themselves; the wealth creators in each parish should organize
themselves, elect their leaders so that we send the money to them and
they buy the inputs themselves.”
The President further cautioned the PDM SACCO leaders not to pressurize
beneficiaries to pay back the borrowed money within a period of one year.
He said they can start paying back after 24 months.
“They don't have to pay back in one year because they are borrowing
mainly for agriculture. When you borrow for agriculture, crops are not
always ready in one year. If it is for instance coffee, it will take over 18
months so there's no harm if this person starts paying back after 24 months
and he doesn't have to pay back all of it at ago. He can start paying after
24 months and finish paying after 48 months, with very little interest, I haveno problem with that. He pays back not to the government but to your
parish SACCO,” he emphasized.
Mr. Museveni also reminded the people of West Nile that the PDM money
is targeted to strategic activities and meant to get 39 percent of Ugandans
out of poverty through calculated commercial agriculture.
“Our money is not for burial or growing marikwang. Ours is to help our
people enter into enterprises which have got a national, regional and
international relevance. When my family starts growing coffee, immediately
they are linked to the world economy. Once our families are hooked on
that, perpetually they will be making money. We want to secure our future
economically,” he said.
“If we see the program moving on well, I can convince the MPs to add
money, instead of Shs100 million we put Shs200 million. We can also have
PDM in the city also. Since you have nowhere to farm, your job is to sell
what other people have produced. So, the people in the village produce
and you sell or if you are more organized you can process.”
The President also advised the locals to embrace the 4-acre model if they
want to get the best out of the PDM funds.
“There's also another mistake, the one of fragmenting land when the head
of the family dies. This means that in each generation, the family land is
becoming smaller and smaller. We are going to have land with disability
because in some parts of the country, they no longer have one acre per
family. In some parts of Ankole they have what they call “Ndunde” (a
quarter of an acre). Now those people can no longer grow food for
themselves. So, you now have land which cannot grow food for the family,
and which cannot earn money for the family. But all this happened because
they did not listen to us because we have been talking about this for the
last 30 years,” Gen. Museveni noted.
"That's why at that time we said 4 acre model; one acre you put coffee, the
second acre you put fruits especially mangos, oranges or pineapples , third
acre you put pasture for zero grazing cows for milk, fourth acre you put
food crops and in the backyard you do poultry keeping for eggs and if you
are not a Muslim you can also have pigs in the backyard but number
seven, if you are near the river you can have fish farming.”
During an interaction session, the locals complained to the President about
the high levels of corruption by government officials in Arua. They pointed
out the management of Arua Central Market which dubiously took away
their stalls and currently they have nowhere to operate from.
The President assured them that he will deal with the corrupt officials
decisively.
“We are going to crush any corrupt person in Uganda. The corrupt are
playing with fire, we are going to finish them,” he warned.
At the same event, President Museveni handed over customary land titles
to 11 people from two districts- Koboko and Maracha. He also extended a
financial support of Shs120 million to artistes in West Nile to set up a music
studio.
Ora County Member of Parliament, Hon. Lawrence Biyika Songa
applauded the President for starting the process of transforming Uganda
through spreading the wealth creation gospel around the country.
“The people of West Nile are with you,” Hon. Songa assured Gen. Museveni.
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