The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga has watered down President Yoweri Museveni’s statement that Uganda has already achieved the entrance points for the lower-middle-income status.
While reacting to Mr Museveni’s State of Nation Address on Tuesday, the Nyendo-Mukungwe lawmaker said that President Museveni and his cabinet must stop dreaming about things which they will never see. He added that for any country whose economy is to ascend to another level, there must be strategic plans and programs that are universal, and intended to drive all people to that desired economic level.
“Museveni and his group must stop thinking that for a country to ascend into Middle-income status is like waking up and driving to Omoro district and coming back, no, there must be strategic plans that must be done selflessly which I don’t see in his government which is full of corruption starting from his own house,” he said.
Mpuuga also noted that for a country trying to ascend into a class of middle-income status; at least 80 Per cent of citizens must be with jobs and are able to feed well, improve standards of living right from rural areas to the urban centres, and improve an education system that earnestly benefits the poor and rich ad well as presence of improved health facilities fully operating (availability of drugs and standard services by qualified medical officials) starting from health centre II.
“Driving an economy into Middle income status is a journey that must be strategically planned, unfortunately, our friends from the NRM think it’s a word that is just mastered, maybe for Mr Museveni and his colleagues who came when they are totally poor, their statuses have indeed changed but Uganda as a country is still having a very long way to reach there.”
On Tuesday Gen Museveni said Uganda has passed through a lot of hurdles ranging from the locusts, the rising waters of the Lakes, the floating islands, the landslides, the terrorist bombs, the covid-19 and now the rising commodity prices artificially caused by the Ukrainian war but the country has managed to achieve a progressive and transformed economy.
“The Ugandan economy, by the budget time in the next few days, will be standing at US$ 45.7billion by the exchange rate method and at USD 131.6 billion by the PPP method. This means that the GDP per capita is now $1046.You remember, the entrance point for the lower-middle-income status, is USD 1036. We have now passed that figure. Congratulations.”
However, Mr Museveni said in order to be declared a middle-income country, the nation has to sustain the points for two to three consecutive years.
“I am confident, we shall overperform, in achieving that. Remember that our economy expanded in spite of the lockdowns caused by covid-19 and in spite of the ever-increasing population; you can see that the size of the economy, when compared to the population that is always growing fast, has continued to grow and we have arrived at the boundary point as far as the middle-income status is concerned,” he added.
However, this year in March the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report showed that if all necessary reforms needed to be done are implemented, Uganda will reach middle-income status by the 2026/27 financial year.
The report again showed that if all reforms are rightly implemented, Uganda’s income per capita, increase from $812 (Shs2.9m) to at least $1,180 (4.25m) by the 2026/27 financial year. It however warned that if the government fails to sufficiently implement reforms, the achievement of middle income will be delayed by at least three years.
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