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KARAMOJA - President Yoweri Museveni says plans are underway to transform Karamoja into the biggest industrial region of Uganda.

The decision, the president says is a bid to develop the region’s great mineral wealth and potential into opportunities for Ugandans.

The development will not only transform the fortunes of the region but also the country as a whole, according to the President.

President Museveni made the revelations while speaking in Moroto district on Tuesday as he presided over the launch of the first clinker factory in Uganda.

“Ugandans in the factories will benefit from jobs and the government will get taxes, but I want all Karimojong to benefit more. You (Karimojong) will share proceeds from the factories by also selling food to factory workers,” the President said.  

The factory, which is a brainchild of China West International Holding Ltd, is being constructed at Nadumet village in Moroto, near Moroto Airstrip. It will have a total production capacity of 6,000 tonnes a day.

Clinker is a special ingredient used for making cement, but has long been imported from abroad, which according to analysts is the reason cement prices keep fluctuating upwards.

However, when completed, it is expected to save the country about $300m (about shillings 1.1 trillion) in lost foreign exchange revenue. 

This is also expected to make cement affordable, especially for the booming real estate industry.    

Cement production is one of the prioritised commodities in the National Development Plan (NDP III) over the 2020-2025 period to build a resilient, integrated, independent, and self-sustaining economy.

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics in 2019 reported that Karamoja suffers the highest poverty rate of 60.2 per cent, way above Uganda's national average of 21.4 per cent.

This is ironic because the region is one of the mineral-rich regions of Uganda, with an abundance of gold, limestone, and oil.