Ugandans will be able to attain Middle Income Status by the end of 2020, David Bahati (pictured), the Minister of State for Planning has assured them.
“We are making massive progress we hope and believe we would have attained middle income by end of this year. So far, we are at USD878 per capita and middle income status requires USD1039 per capita income, so we think (by the time) we get the reviews, we would have hit it by the end of this year,” Bahati said.
The Minister made the remarks today while appearing before Parliament’s Budget Committee to present the 2020/2021 national budget framework paper.
This was after a section of MPs including Amos Lugoloobi (Ntenjeru County) and Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala County) tasked the Minister to explain how far Government has gone with delivering its promise of delivering middle income to Ugandans by 2020.
Muwanga asked: “This is the 4th year of kisanja hakuna mchezo are you talking about a government which has failed? You made a promise to people; middle income status, how far have you moved with this journey in real figures?”
World Bank ranks middle income countries as those whose per capita income (annual earnings per person) averages between US$1,036 and US$12,615. This means Uganda is battling to attain a Lower Middle Income status (US$1,036).
Per capita income is the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country divided by the total population.
It gives an indication of the average earnings per person in a year.
2020/21 budget
The total resource envelope for 2019/2020 projected to be Shs39.640Trn down from Shs40.467Trn for 2019/2020, with the reduction blamed on reduction in external financing.
According to the breakdown, Ministry of Works, Interest Payments, Education and Security Sectors will be the highest earners while Trade, Science and Technology and ICT sectors will receive the least funding.
The Minister said that in the 2020/2021 budget, priority will be put on increasing production and productivity in the productive sectors of the economy, enhancing private sector competitiveness, consolidating and increasing infrastructure stock, increase social service provision, improving the effectiveness of governance and maintaining peace and security.
Its important to attain the lower middle income status, but how has the government planned for the youth to do income generating projects, the youth need capital we can’t access any credit because we don’t have assets. Think about it because the future of this country is in the hands of the young ones