Musevenomics: Navigating Uganda’s economic future in a disrupted world
The 2025 conference revisited the nine interconnected pillars of Musevenomics.
L-R front row; Prof. Ezra Suruma, Ambassador Jan Sadek, the Head of the EU Delegation to Uganda, Sarah Kagingo, the vice Chairperson of Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Nobert Mao, the minister for justice and constitutional affairs, Augustus Nuwagaba, the Deputy Governor Bank of Uganda, former minister for agriculture Victoria Sekitoleko and other guests in group picture during the Mesevenomics conference 2025 at Mestil Hotel in Nsambya on May 29, 2025. (Photos by Maria Wamala)
By John Masaba and Nelson Mandela Muhoozi
Journalists @New Vision
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The 2025 Musevenomics Conference held from May 29–30 at Mestil Hotel in Kampala city, brought together some of the country’s brightest economic minds, policymakers, scholars, and development partners to unpack the transformative legacy of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s economic vision—Musevenomics—and chart a practical path forward in an era of global disruption.
Held under the theme: Sustaining Musevenomics: Navigating Uganda’s Economic Future in a Disrupted World, the conference was organised by the Uganda Development Forum (UDF) with support from key entities like the Parish Development Model (PDM) and the Uganda Development Corporation (UDC).
Understanding Musevenomics
First conceptualised in the early days of President Museveni’s tenure in 1986, Musevenomics is a multi-pronged development philosophy centred on wealth creation at the grassroots, macroeconomic stability, and the structural transformation of Uganda’s economy from peasantry to modernity.
A cross-section of participants during the Musevenomics Conference 2025 at Mistil hotel in Nsambya on Thursday, May 29, 2025. 
The 2025 conference revisited the nine interconnected pillars of Musevenomics, including awakening peasants into the money economy, fostering value addition, lowering the cost of doing business, land consolidation and tenure security, economic and political integration, security of persons and property, zero tolerance to corruption, private sector-led development, enabling environment for enterprise growth.
However, only four pillars were deeply discussed in the 2025 conference due to time constraints: awakening peasants, value addition, cost of doing business, and regional integration.
Thought leadership, critical insights
The two-day event featured presentations from Uganda’s economic vanguards including Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho (Salim Saleh), justice minister Norbert Mao, Bank of Uganda Governor Dr Michael Atingi-Ego, Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba, Finance permanent secretary Dr Ramathan Ggoobi, NSSF managing director Patrick Ayota and thought leaders like Dr Fred Muhumuza and Prof. Julius Kiiza.
A consistent thread throughout was the adaptive nature of Musevenomics. Far from rigid ideology, it borrows pragmatically from Marxist, Classical, and Neo-Classical Economics, blending liberalism with structural state intervention where needed.
“Musevenomics is a dynamic blend. It’s not textbook theory—it’s applied economics aimed at empowering the ordinary Ugandan,” Ggoobi said.
Uganda’s transformation in numbers
The conference celebrated key milestones achieved under Musevenomics. Macroeconomic Stability was highlighted by Dr. Fred Muhumuza as a key achievement, noting that inflation has been tamed from 300% in the 1980s to single digits currently.
Accordingly, electricity generation increased from 60MW in 1986 to over 2,300MW in 2025, while road infrastructure network expanded sevenfold.
For coffee exports, production has surged from 2.1 million bags to over 8 million currently, due to liberalization and improved farm-gate prices.
Experts also alluded to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) growth, where assets grew from shillings 5.5 trillion in 2015 to shillings 25.5 trillion in 2025, positioning it as a major institutional investor.
In addition, agro-industrial linkages have also been boosted. For example, Uganda Breweries Ltd (UBL) sources from 35,000 plus farmers, injecting shillings 40 billion annually into rural communities.
“These aren’t abstract statistics, they’re lived realities across Uganda’s villages and trading centres,” noted Gen. Caleb Akandwanaho.
Opportunities amidst disruption
Economics during the conference said Uganda stands at a pivotal juncture.
“The country’s youthful population, rich natural resources, and strategic location make it ripe for accelerated growth,” they said.
However, speakers cautioned that Uganda must adapt to global disruptions, from supply chain reconfigurations, climate shocks, and geopolitical tensions, to the waning of traditional aid sources and the shift to self-financed development.
Among the proposed solutions are scaling Fintech to deepen financial inclusion and reduce the cost of credit, unlocking long-term finance by developing deeper capital markets, holistic policy design to maximize synergies and avoid contradictory policies, offtaking models and tax incentives to develop agro-based value chains and community mobilization to ensure mindset shifts towards productivity and self-reliance.
Persistent bottlenecks holding Uganda back
Despite remarkable progress, challenges remain. On land constraints, it was revealed that only 30% of the land is titled, with fragmentation and speculative buying limiting investment potential.
The high cost of capital was also highlighted as a key bottleneck as interest rates between 17%–20% price out farmers and SMEs.
Additionally, regulatory bottlenecks were noted as prevalent, with SMEs still struggling with inconsistent and cumbersome rules.
Educationists at the conference pointed out the skills mismatch, saying the education system produces more lawyers than engineers or agricultural scientists, missing market demands.
Furthermore, experts said local capital suppression is still a huge economic bottleneck that needs urgent attention. They referred to the 1990s liberalisation that allowed foreign dominance in banking and manufacturing, stifling domestic industrial champions.
R-L; Nobert Mao the minister for justice and constitutional affairs, Sarah Kagingo the vice Chairperson of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, Augustus Nuwagaba the Deputy Governor bank of Uganda,Patrick Bitonder Birungi is the Executive Director of Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) and other guests during the Mesevenomics conference 2025 at Mestil Hotel in Kampala on May 29, 2025.
“Uganda never built its own Samsung or Hyundai because we failed to protect emerging local capital,” lamented Prof. Julius Kiiza.
Recommendations
The conference produced a set of strong recommendations:
- Reform land tenure to support consolidation, resolve disputes, and unlock credit.
- Build a strategic mixed economy where state and private sector co-invest in critical sectors.
- Scale local agro-processing through impact-based financing.
- Tackle the “Six Highs” (high transport, energy, finance, ICT, regulation, and labor costs).
- Accelerate technical/vocational education to meet labor market needs.
- Introduce preferential procurement policies for local enterprises.
- Deepen financial markets to reduce cost of credit and increase domestic capital formation.
The coffee case study
One key case study celebrated at the conference was Uganda’s coffee sector. The 20 million bag directive issued by the President revitalised the sector.
Liberalisation led to a near tripling of export volumes, a reduction in cross-border smuggling and strengthened farm-gate prices, making coffee farming lucrative again.
Dr Sarah Kanaabi of Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) emphasised the need to replicate this structured growth model in other commodities like cotton, maize, sorghum, and dairy.
The 2025 Musevenomics Conference closed with renewed commitment to economic sovereignty, inclusivity, and resilience.
Uganda is no longer the aid-dependent nation of the 1980s. With Musevenomics as the compass, it is moving, slowly but surely, towards a self-sustaining, inclusive, and modern economy.
The vice-chairperson of the Uganda Development Fund, Norbert Mao summed it up: “Musevenomics is not a theory. It is the story of a nation that refused to die. It is the struggle for economic emancipation in real time.”