President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has led national celebrations in Kakumiro District, western Uganda as the ruling party marks 37 years in leadership.
The NRA turned UPDF spearheaded by Museveni took over government on January 26, 1986 after a five year guerrilla war as NRA combatants sought to depose Dr Apollo Milton Obote.
37 years later, Museveni has advised the people of Kakumiro to learn adding value in agriculture.
“I don’t want to hear that Uganda’s GDP is 36 billion dollars, no. I want half a trillion. But that can be achieved if we all start adding value,” he said.
He gave an example of Uganda’s exported coffee of which a kilogram is three dollars and in return it’s imported at $50.
“Here we sell coffee at $3 and the foreigners roast and grind and pack it and sell it to us at $50. Why? Because they add value.”
The President reaffirmed that Uganda is already a middle class economy, however, it needs three years to formalize that.
This is the second time Museveni is confirming that Uganda has reached the middle income status despite an onslaught of crises in the past three years.
According to official data, the nation’s economy stood at about $45.7billion by the exchange rate method or $131billion by the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) system as of last year in June.
Speaking at Kakumiro Museveni expressed confidence that Uganda would maintain its spot above the middle income status GDP per capita minimum of about $1,030.
He said this can be done if farmers learn to also add value in their goods.
For example, the President explained why banana farmers earn less while, those who do less work earn a lot from the bi-products.
“A banana farmer waits for a longtime to sell a banana to a juice maker (eshande), the juice maker sells to a waragi brewer who does less work but earns big,” he said.
He therefore advised farmer to start undertaking all those process from planting to brewing waragi to be able to earn a lot of money, create wealth and boost the economy to middle income status.