Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija
Government has revealed that the size of the economy is now estimated at Shs202 trillion (USD 53.3 billion) up from Shs 184.3 trillion (USD 48.8 billion) in nominal terms.
The revelation was made by Minister of Finance, Matia Kasaija while reading the Shs72.136 trillion national budget for Financial Year 2024/25 at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds on Thursday afternoon.
“If Ugandans agreed to share this GDP equally, each citizen would enjoy a GDP per capita of USD 1,146 compared to USD 1,081 registered last Financial Year 2022/23,” Kasaija said.
The theme for the coming financial year has been maintained as: “Full Monetisation of the Uganda’s Economy through Commercial Agriculture, Industrialisation, Expanding and Broadening Services, Digital Transformation and Market Access”.
The Minister said Uganda’s economy has fully recovered from various internal and external shocks that impacted performance in the past four years. GDP is projected to grow by 6 percent this financial year 2023/24 compared to 5.3 percent in FY2022/23.
“This year’s growth of 6 percent is even more impressive when compared to Sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 3.8 percent, and the global average of 2.9 percent projected for the year 2024,” he said, adding that the improved performance of the economy is on account of higher growth in all sectors. “Services, agriculture, and industry, are estimated to grow at 6.6 percent, 5.1 percent, and 5.8 percent, respectively, in FY2023/24. In particular, growth in the services sector has been impressive, mainly driven by strong recovery in retail and wholesale trade, tourism as well as communication and real estate activities,” he said.
He noted that growth in industry was mainly driven by manufacturing, construction and mining, while increased production of food and cash crops, as well as livestock supported growth in the agriculture sector.
“Agriculture’s performance, estimated to have expanded at 5.1 percent this year compared to 4.5 percent registered in FY2022/23, is attributed to streamlined implementation of the Parish Development Model (PDM); and fairly good weather conditions,” said Kasaija.
He revealed that Government’s Export Promotion Strategy has continued to produce positive results. During the year ending April 2024, Uganda’s exports increased by USD 2.534 billion to USD 7.471 billion compared to USD 4.938 billion in April 2023, representing a 34 percent growth.
“This increase was largely driven by increased exports of gold (75.7 percent), coffee (21.9 percent), oil reexports (21.8 percent), sim-sim (20.2 percent), tobacco (10.3 percent), cotton (6.9 percent), and light manufactured products (4.9 percent). The major destinations of our exports are the East African Community (EAC) countries which account for 29 percent, COMESA 29 percent, Middle East 24 percent, and Asia 20 percent,” he said.
He further noted that efforts to increase value addition to exports have continued to yield positive results.
“Exports of manufactured products have continued to be significant contributors of export earnings. In particular, in 2023, cement
exports reached USD 91.1 million, sugar USD 75.8 million, plastic products
USD 62.6 million, soap USD 33.9 million, beer USD 25.8 million. This Financial Year 2023/24, efforts to increase export performance have been strengthened through investing in targeted value addition initiatives and implementing several enabling trade policies,” he said.
He noted that in the financial year ending, Uganda imported goods worth USD 12.9 billion compared to USD 10.3 billion in the year ending April 2023.
“This increase in imports was largely driven by an increase in private sector imports of 23 percent, mainly to develop our nascent oil and gas sector,” he said.
