With Uganda’s planned “Middle Income” status by 2020 plans in motion, government has swung into action with credible work plans, targeting all sectors of the economy including youth empowerment to generate incomes.The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development Pius Bigirimana says that the Youth Livelihood Program (YLP) has made tremendous growth since its commencement in 2014. Bigirimana however wondered why the media and a section of opposition of groups have made it a habit to popularize false impressions that the program has achieved nothing. “I want to correct the impression that has been created that YLP was a failure. People who say this have ignorance of the achievements of this program,”
Bigirimana said. “About 40% of the money that is owed to government has already been reimbursed by the beneficiaries out of the 8,000 projects that were funded,” he added. He said this while addressing the media earlier in the day. He said defaulters are the biggest saboteurs of the program.
“There are four groups of people who are trying hard to frustrate the Youth Livelihood Program. The politicians, the defaulters and the opposition who still think this program is a campaign strategy of the government,” he said. He asked the media to instead report accurately and factual instead of being carried away by opposition innuendos.
Bigirimana solely designed and the YLP concept a few months after he was transferred from scandal stricken OPM to ministry of gender which previously was perceived as a very dormant office. He has since been lauded by President Museveni for his hard work and commitment to fight corruption.
He explained that critics must understand that the different projects that were funded under YLP have different maturity periods.
Bigirimana named an officer in Sironko district who was jailed after receiving a bribe from a defaulter.