First lady hails local investors in fighting poverty

By Vision Reporter

The First Lady and Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Janet Museveni, has hailed local businessmen for utilising the peace ushered in by the NRM government and putting up investments which are contributing towards the fight against poverty.

Janet Museveni was addressing a cross section of people who included ministers, MPs local leaders and the business community during the opening of Continental Hotel, an investment by Wilbur Gakuweire, an businessman in Iganga Municipality on last Tuesday.

She urged Ugandans to work hard and adopt a savings culture in order to make viable investments if they are to transform their communities and the nation.

“What we are doing in Uganda is to make sure that people prosper. That is why the President is moving around the country mobilising people to engage in income generating activities in order to promote their standards of living”, Janet Museveni said.

She said Uganda’s towns and villages can also be transformed into beautiful places just like elsewhere in the world and congratulated the businessmen in Iganga for their spirit of unity and hard work which has enabled them to contribute towards the transformation of Iganga town.

Gakuweire said the construction of this hotel was in response to President Museveni’s call to Ugandans to embark on income generating activities. When complete the hotel will provide employment to over 80 people.

He requested the Government to consider giving tax holidays to local investors, so that they can continue initiating development projects.

The Iganga business community reported that their district is the ‘heart’ of Busoga in business with over 1,000 rooms in the various hotels and potential for tourism.

They requested the Government to utilise the business investments in the district.

They also requested for technological skills for value addition to their products.