{{Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni Thursday Delivered an assessment of the country’s economy, promised a year of action and talked down concerns about the future of the nation raised by the Opposition.}}
In his State-of-the-Nation address, Mr Museveni said his government will continue to invest heavily in the agricultural sector and revealed how poverty in the country has declined to record levels despite challenges.
“ Consequently, the proportion of people living below the poverty line has further declined from above 56 per cent in 1992 to 24.5 per cent percent in 2009/10; and now to 19.7 per cent in 2012/13,” he said.
Adding: “Uganda has, therefore, already surpassed the first Millennium Development Goal target of halving the proportion of the population living in extreme poverty by 2015.
Some parts of the country have got even better performance figures. When the other areas catch up, Uganda will enter the Middle Income status.”
He promised to tackle persisting economic disparities between the well off and poor with a series of initiatives in the four priority sectors: agriculture, industry, services and ICT, which he said are key to lead to wealth creation and access to employment.
Highlighting the economic progress, Mr Museveni said the size of the economy currently stands at Shs63.3 trillion ($25.3billion), indicating an increase of 5.7 per cent in the current financial year.
However, the President also observed that the instability in South Sudan and unfavourable weather conditions had impeded faster economic growth.
NMG
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