Mbale, (UG):- President Yoweri Museveni Friday commissioned the Uganda Support to Municipal Infrastructure Development (USMID)-funded roads in Mbale City.
During the launch, President Museveni revealed that the government is now focused on diversifying a multi-modal transport system. “We are now talking about the roads which we are working on but the big effort which we are going to make is the railway because the traffic on the road now is not needed,” he said.
“We are now going to develop the railway system and also the pipeline from Kenya and Tanzania so that the oil is not transported via roads. The cargo also is not supposed to be on the road, it should be on the railway. The roads should be used by passengers and light cargo. Then we have air travel and water travel. We need to diversify the multi-modal transport system.”
President Museveni also implored the leaders to mobilise all Uganda to join the money economy to create wealth. “Whatever the National Resistance Movement (NRM) does, is deliberate and we follow our proverb here of “one by one makes a bundle”.
“This is the NRM, if you were to listen, we would move because we told you to start with the base which is the population and the majority of the people are in agriculture. Wake up those people so that they join the money economy where every household is earning money,” he said.
“At Independence, only 9 per cent of the homesteads were in the money economy. What sort of a country is that where you have 91 per cent of the homesteads boycotting money? How will you live in a modern society without money?” he further wondered.
Additionally, President Museveni explained that since its inception, the NRM has been preaching wealth creation, with the aim of transforming the lives of Ugandans.
“That’s why when we came, after stabilization, from 1986 I started moving around telling people to use the prevailing peace to create prosperity and in 1996, we put all this in the Manifesto for that Election, bonna bagagawale. In the rural areas the kugagawala is through commercial agriculture,” he noted.
“Now we have moved but we have not done so as we would have done. After involving the army and all that, now the people in the money economy are 67 percent, 33 percent are still boycotting money.”
The President further urged that if leaders empower all Ugandans to join the money economy, the purchasing power will go up, thus enabling the country to achieve the much-desired socio-economic transformation.
“You leaders should be clear that rural transformation is crucial for urban transformation because it will equip the rural areas with the purchasing power who will then come and purchase from your shops and all that. Make sure that all the homesteads join the money economy through agriculture by using PDM, then other people can go to Emyooga and services.”
The Minister of State for Urban Development, Hon. Kania Obiga congratulated Mbale for attaining a city status and for successfully implementing the USMID project for a decade.
“The country Your Excellency is urbanising at a rate of 5.4 percent of our population, and this raises the challenges of service delivery, unemployment and of course security and this is bound to continue. Your Excellency, the NRM government advocates for structured urban planning to ensure all cities and Urban towns are livable, productive and environmentally sustainable,” he said.
“The NRM Manifesto highlights investment in modern urban infrastructure such as what you are seeing here; the roads, the drainage system and affordable housing to cope with the increasing urban population, increase the people’s capacity to make money.”
He further noted that the USMID project under the President’s guidance has been implemented in 10 cities, 12 Municipalities, and 11 districts which are hosting the refugees.
The Permanent Secretary- Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Ms. Dorcas Okalany thanked the President for elevating the initial 10 USMID program municipalities to city status including Mbale.
“USMID has been instrumental in transforming many local governments, enhancing service delivery and improving infrastructure. Your Executive Order of April 9th, 2023, in solid management has been such a guiding principle for our project and we are proud to report that USMID supported local government to purchase waste disposal trucks and we are implementing the project in alignment with your vision. The program of local government waste management strategy and the bins which we have introduced in these cities have given us some kind of cleanliness in the cities,” she said.
“We thank you for equipping the Ministry of Lands with great expertise, dedicated cadres to serve Ugandans effectively.”
The Mbale City Mayor, Mr. Kassim Namugali thanked the President for his visionary leadership and creating an enabling environment that has made the project a success.
“A couple of years ago, for us who moved around, as we talk now there would be a lot of mud but we can now move safely and this is one of the ways we can attract people to come and spend some dollars here, especially those who come to visit Uganda,” he said.
He however expressed concern that the city lacks road equipment and Shs1 billion road fund being sent by the central government is not being utilized well due to such challenges.
“I had to go and borrow the equipment from the regional office in Bugembe which is also quite far. We started begging them last year and we got them just this year,” he said.
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