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🎙️   PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 

Presented and edited by Joseph Kizza
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 10:20 PM 

 'Uganda will remain peaceful, secure and prosperous'

On security, President Museveni says "security infrastructure and interventions to maintain peace and security of the people of Uganda, investors and our visitors, is guaranteed".

"The security infrastructure we have built will eliminate the very few remaining loopholes where ADF terrorists are exploiting to carry out cowardly attacks on civilians. 

And as he concludes his address, the President says:

"As we commemorate the 38th Anniversary of NRM’s victory, I want to assure everybody, including our visitors and investors, that Uganda will remain a peaceful, secure and prosperous country."

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 10:15 PM 

The President also says that investing in human capital development "will continue to be given priority, including addressing the poor governance and wastage of public resources in these areas".

"Whereas the outcomes have improved, we have not yet achieved the desirable levels, especially in the critical areas of education and health."
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 10:13 PM 

Boosting indutrial arteries

On industrialization, Museveni highlights the strides made here by saying the government has supported the development of industrial parks, seven of which are currently operational: Namanve, Jinja, Bweyogerere, Soroti, Mbale, Kasese and Luzira. 

There are three industrial parks developed under the public private partnership arrangement at Kapeeka, Mukono and Buikwe. 

"Uganda Investment Authority has acquired additional 12 square miles for industrial development provided by the various local governments across the 18 zones in the country," says Museveni.
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 10:10 PM 

Electricity projects

President Museveni says his government "will continue with the development of energy infrastructure and complete the ongoing electricity projects to lower the cost of electricity for manufacturers and small-scale businesses".

This includes commissioning the third turbine of the 600MW Karuma Hydropower Project, addressing the gaps to fully operationalize Isimba Power Plant and completing Nyagak in West Nile and Orio Mini Hydro power plants.
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 10:08 PM 

Knowledge-based economy

The President also underlines the importance of a knowledge-based economy.  He says leveraging a knowledge-based economy will require:

▪️  Supporting research and development and linking research hubs with universities and industry operators
▪️  Deliberately investing in improving the quality of education (skills development in particular) and ICT
▪️  Putting in place a strategy for long-term development of specialized skills to support a more sophisticated and diversified economy
▪️  Developing an effective apprenticeship programme to quickly acquire knowledge, expertise and technology transfer, given the rising global ICT village
▪️  Putting in place a reward system and a functional transparent patent system for innovation
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 10:05 PM 

Uganda's oil and gas

Meanwhile, Museveni says the commercial production of oil and gas will provide revenues to support productivity enhancement in the economy through economic activities such as oil refineries, petrochemical plants and petroleum products distributors.

"Government is enhancing investments in this area by fast-tracking the construction of the East Africa Crude Oil pipeline (EACOP) and the oil refinery," he says.

"The pipeline will have the capacity to pump up to 230,000 barrels of crude oil daily."
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 10:00 PM 

'Govt not to relax on PDM'

"We are not going to relax on the PDM approach because this is correct," says President Museveni.

He says to date, "Government has invested sh2.23 trillion in the financial inclusion pillar of the PDM, targetting all the 10,059 parishes across the country for job creation and increase in household incomes.

"Sh1 trillion has been successfully disbursed to one million households in 10,455 parishes out of the 10,585 SACCOS across the country. The balance will soon be disbursed when the remaining beneficiaries meet the conditions successfully.

"Government is working to improve the PDM by improved monitoring,  operationalization of the other six pillars of PDM, streamlining of all government programme interventions and service delivery to the parish to ensure the realization of PDM," says Museveni.
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 9:58 PM 

On savers...

The President says that the number of Ugandans subscribed to at least one pension increaed to 2.2%  from 2.9 million in FY 2021/2022 to 3 million in 2022/2023.
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 9:57 PM 

President Museveni says;

▪️  Remittances of Ugandans working outside the country increased to $1.4 billion in FY 2022/2023, higher than $1.3 billion in FY 2021/2022.

▪️  Uganda continued to register growth in the oil sector, FDI inflows rose from $1.6 billion in FY 2021/2022 to 2.8% FY 2022/2023.

▪️  Formal employment has recovered from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic. The Pay As You Earn (PAYE) register expanded by 14.1% from 1.4 million employees in FY 2021/2022 to 1.6 million employees in 2022/2023.

▪️ Uganda Development Bank loans to projects created 41,000 jobs, up from 24,000 jobs. Free Zones Authority created 9,000 jobs, PDM, 1.6 million members from 148,000 enterprise groups have so far benefitted from the national rollout of the PDM, Emyooga — 378,000 jobs were created by December 2022, rising from 338,000 in March 2022.

▪️ Kigezi, Acholi and Lango sub-regions registered the highest number of jobs created while central Buganda recorded the lowest number of direct jobs created.
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 9:53 PM 

Other measures to boost tourism receipts include;

▪️ Activation of passage and cargo services at Kabalega International Airport.
▪️ Professionalization and diversification of meetings
▪️ Incentives
▪️ Conferences and events
▪️ Rapid increase in the number of multilingual tour guides, including Kiswahili and Chinese language
▪️  Expanded use of destination marketing
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 9:50 PM 

"The lies of the European and American politicians about security and stereotypes about Uganda must therefore, be aggressively encountered by providing the correct information through our friends in those countries and online to show the correct image of the country," says President Museveni.
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 9:47 PM 

Uganda's $6.2b tourism potential

In 2019, foreign visitors to Uganda spent over sh4.6 trillion on tourism services while domestic tourists spent about sh3 trillion, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). In total that is equivalent to $2 billion (0.02% of the global industry value).

"The number of tourists globally was about 965 million in 2021, compared to about only 1.5 million foreign investors in Uganda in 2019," says the President.

"If we increase our share of tourism receipts in this global trade by five times to 0.1% and increase in the annual number of foreign tourists by five times under the current average spend per tourist of sh3 million, and an average length of 8.3 nights, Uganda can potentially earn $6.2 billion per year."
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 9:43 PM 

'Resilient' tourism inflows

"Tourism inflows remain resilient, recording an increase of 9% from $978 million in FY 2021/2022 (during the COVID-19 pandemic) to $1.1 billion in FY 2022/2023," says the President.

"This growth was partly attributed to increased confidence of travellers as the world recovers from the COVID-19 global shock as well as peace and security."

Despite this "remarkable performance", Museveni says Uganda is putting in place interventions to increase tourism receipts to $5 billion per annum by 2028.


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 9:40 PM 

'Non-tariff barriers issue will be solved'

"To expand regional trade and support regional development, Uganda is undertaking joint projects with DR Congo and improve the border infrastructure to improve trade and financial services to the region," says Museveni.

"We are undertaking joint projects in the road sector in eastern Congo. Securing this market is good for Uganda in terms of exports and jobs."

Museveni says Uganda and DR Congo will continue to work together to improve the security situation  in eastern Congo.

"Uganda has gained competitiveness in recent years in a number of tradeable goods, including animal products such as beef and milk, agricultural products especially coffee, tea, fish, sugar, industrial products, iron and steel products, etc.

"However, we continue to face non-tariff barriers to our exports which are being resolved through our discussions with the leaders of the EAC and COMESA.

"This will be solved," says Museveni. "I am talking to all of them."
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 9:33 PM 

'Uganda's GDP must expand 10 times'

Meanwhile, Government will soon finalize a strategy "to expand Uganda's GDP ten times from the current $50 billion in the financial 2023/2024 to $500 billion within a decade, starting with the financial year 2024/2025.

"That's what I have told the finance people and Cabinet", says the President.

He says this wil be driven by value addition and access to exports markets.

"Countries that have exponentially grown their GDP to around $5 billion from a base like Uganda have demonstrated that the primary drivers of accelerated growth were  access to global markets with higher rates of growth of manufactured exports and their share of world exports of manufactured goods dipping from 9% in 1965 to 21% in 1990."

Other stimuli of accelerated growth were found to be increased productivity across the strategic sectors, specialization through skilled human capital that supported research  and development which helped achieve competitive advantage.

Other drivers were favourable economic policies that harness comparative advantages, peace and security that supported political stability, etc.

The countries Museveni is referring to include South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Chile.

"Many of these countries did not have the natural resources that we have. So it's possible."
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 9:30 PM 

Asia, Middle East exporting more to Uganda than vice versa

Meanwhile, Uganda recorded a trade surplus with the European Union (EU) and COMESA in the 12 months to October 2023 of $113 million and $967 million, respectively.

That means that Uganda exported more to the EU than they exported to Uganda, with Uganda having a surplus of $113 million with them. Same applies to COMESA.

Trade deficits were recorded with Asia and the Middle East. That means these two regions are still exporting more to Uganda than the latter is to them. "But this will soon change, because I know why," says Museveni.
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 9:26 PM 

'Uganda should target global market more'

For Uganda to accelerate its prosperity, Museveni says "we must significantly increase the volume and value of our exports to the global market".

"Through increased trade, our goal of transitioning from poverty to prosperity will be achieved much faster.
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 9:17 PM 

EAC major destination for Ugandan exports

Museveni says the East African Community (EAC) remained the major destination of Uganda's exports in the 12 months to October 2023, accounting for 43.5% of total exports, followed by  the Middle East (18.1%), and Asia (17.6%).

With the EAC region, the top three destinations for Uganda's exports in the same period were Kenya (31.5%), DR Congo (24.6%) and South Sudan (23.3%).

In the 12 months to October 2023, Uganda traded at a surplus worth $716 million with all the EAC partner states.

Additionally, in the 12 months to October 2023, Uganda exported goods worth $890 million to Kenya, $696 million to DR Congo and $659 million to South Sudan, $298 million to Rwanda, $213 million to Tanzania and $72 million to Burundi.

"In total, our exports to the EAC were worth $2.8 billion out of the total exports fo $6.5 billion to all our trading partners," says Museveni. "However, this is a very tiny fraction  of our exports compared to the global exports."

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 9:10 PM 

Govt's move to boost value addition

To accelerate the process of value addition, the Government is;

▪️  reducing further the cost of electricity for manufacturers
▪️  improving transport infrastructure, including roads and railways
▪️  eliminating bureacracy in the government, especially in the procurement in order to attract new investment  and technology transfer, making available affordable capital
▪️  intensifying the fight against corruption through accelerating automation of government processes, frequent audits of government interventions and rationalization of government institutions and departments.

Museveni goes on to warn that the corrupt will soon "lose appetite" for engaging in corruption.
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 9:02 PM 

Imports increased too...

Museveni adds that imports increased to $9 billion in the 12 months to October 2023 compared to 7.4 billion in the same period a year ago.

He says the increase in imports is largely in the oil and gas sector, minerals exploration and development, vehicles and accessories.

"Exports receipts are expected to increase even further as Uganda accelerates the production of light manufactured goods and middle high tech industrial products through value addition, especially to the abundant mineral reserves the country has.

"To accelerate the process of value addition, the Government is reducing further the cost of electricity for manufacturers, improving transport infrastructure, including roads and railways, eliminating bureacracy in the government, especially in the procurement in order to attract new investment  and technology transfer, making available affordable capital and intensifying the fight against corruption through accelerating automation of government processes, frequent audits of government interventions and rationalization of government institutions and departments.

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 8:48 PM 

'Exports increased by 54.9%

Museveni says the general increase in the price of goods and services in the country (inflation) slowed down from a peak of 10.7% in October 2022 to 2.6% in November 2023.

According to the President, this is expected to "remain within the policy target of 5% over the medium term, supported by;

▪️  increased agricultural production
▪️  increase in the supply of locally manufactured goods
▪️ increased exports, which increase the supply of foreign currency in the economy,
▪️  increased efficiency in economic activities due to increasing integration of new technologies, including ICT capabilities in our manufacturing and other businesses.

"Merchandise export of goods increased significantly, growing by 54.9% from approximately $4.2 billion  in the 12 months up to October  2022 to $6.5 billion in the 12 months  up to October 2023, largely driven by gold, coffee and maize eports," says Museveni.

"Imports grew by 26.2%, much slower than the growth in exports, resulting in the narrowing of the trade deficit by 11.2% in the same period.

"This is the main reason why the Ugandan shilling has remained stable, together with the strong foreign direct investment inflows and the remittances of Ugandans working outside the country.

"This shows that Uganda's economy remains attractive to investment and it remains a profitable investment destination."
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 8:43 PM 

Museveni warns 'agents of imperialism'

"I want to warn those people who have been decampaigning our coffee value addition efforts. I need to warn them. They must stop. We know who they are and who are behind them," says President Museveni sternly.

"They want us to continue exporting raw materials. They want us to continue exporting unprocessed coffee. They want us to continue importing dead people's clothes from outside instead of developing our textiles industry.

"Even some people have been fighting our refinery. They want us to export crude and then we import finished products. This one will not happen and I need to warn those who are involved because we are going to move on them.

"They are agents of imperialism."

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 8:40 PM 

Museveni outlines growth initiatives

The size of Uganda's economy will grow from sh184 trillion in 2022/2023 to sh204 trillion ($55 billion) by the end of the current financial year (2023/2024), says Museveni.

It will then leap to sh225 trillion in the next financial year (2024/2025).

"This growth will be driven by a higher output in the services, industry and agriculture sectors of the economy," adds the President.

"The recovery in aggregate demand as inflation slows down, the continued implementation of the PDM, expediting investment in oil and gas, continued recovery in tourism, growth in regional trade, including in the EAC, COMESA, and globally, all these will contribute to the surge forward of the economy.

"Other growth initiatives will include the government's consistence investments in the establishment and operationalization of industrial parks, then infrastructural developments including expanding and maintenance of roads, bridges, the railways, investment in research and innovation and affordable electricity.

"The implementation of the interventions to accelerate economic growth through productivity improvements and value addition to our abundant raw materials in the anchor sectors of the agroindustrialization, oil and gas, mineral development, tourism and knowledge economy development will shift the economic growth path to a level of 8% per annum on average over the medium term."
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 8:33 PM 

'Uganda's economy growing'

President Museveni also talks the economy.

"Despite the effects of climate change on agriculture and on our infrastructure by the floods, then the conflict in eastern Europe which led to a rise in the prices of some strategic commodities such as oil, etc, the [Ugandan] economy has continued to expand," he says.

▪️  The economy grew to sh184.89 trillion ($49.5 billion) in 2022/2023, up from sh162 trillion ($45.6 billion) in 2021/2022.

▪️  In purchasing power terms, the size of the economy is now sh114 billion and the per capita of GDP of $2,281.

▪️  In real terms, the economy grew up 5.2% in 2022/2023 better than 4.6% in 2021/2022.

This expansion was as a result of good performance of most sectors of the economy," says Museveni, "with services growing at 6.2%, especially in trade, tourism,education and ICT, arts and entertainment, agriculture at 4.8%, with food crops growing at 4.7% from 3.5%, livestock growing at 8.8% from 8.3% and fish activities growing at 8.6% from 0.3%.

"The growth in industry was 3.5%, slower than the 5.1% recorded in the same period the previous year.

"Uganda's economic outlook is very optimistic. This is mainly because of the consistent support to the private sector through supportive policies that create a business-friendly environment, investment in infrastructure like in energy, transport and ICT, enhanced access to credit  through the Parish Development Model, small business recovery fund, Emyooga, agriculture credit facility, loans of Uganda Development Bank (UDB) and support by UDC as well as the swift and comprehensive response to the impact of the previous health crisis and the regional geo-political security issues.

"In spite of all those, the economy is growing," says Museveni.
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 8:28 PM 

'Uganda is safe and peaceful'

The President says the NRM victory of January 26, 1986 was an "indicator of the resilience of our people and their ability to overcome various challenges".

He says Uganda has "emerged strong" in the recent years "in the face of several challenges".

Museveni says that inspite of some few cases of attacks by militant group ADF, "Uganda is a safe and peaceful country" and that "the Government is modernizing further its security capabilities and infrastructure to detect terrorist incidences before they happen".

"We have greatly improved our intelligence and surveillance capabilities to ensure that Ugandans and our visitors who come here are safe."

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 8:24 PM 

 BREAKING NEWS 

President begins address

President Yoweri Museveni begins his address to the nation at State House Nakasero.

He starts off by congratulating Ugandans upon reaching the 38th NRM Victory anniversary, which will be held on Friday in Jinja this year.

He also once again extends his condolences over the death of "my sister and patriotic leader Cecilia Ogwal", the late Dokolo Woman MP who died in a hospital in India last week.

Museveni says Ogwal, who passed away at the age of 77 and will be buried this Saturday, "worked with the party in power, the NRM, to extend services to her people".

He also congratulates all Ugandans for assuming the chairmanship of both the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Group of 77 and China (G77+China) and hails all stakeholders for successfully organizing the two summits this month.
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 8:15 PM 

'Please tune in'

In this social media era, President Yoweri Museveni does a good job at keeping his 3.2 million followers on social media platform X in the loop on new developments.

"Fellow Ugandans, especially the Bazzukulu, I will address the nation tomorrow, Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 8pm as we prepare to mark the 38th NRM Liberation Day. Please tune in," he posted on Wednesday.

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 8:00 PM 

📝 Preamble

Hello and welcome to New Vision's live text commentary of President Yoweri Museveni's message of the NRA/NRM Liberation Day on the eve of the national celebrations.

This year marks the 38th anniversary of Uganda's liberation.

The President's address will be aired on Vision Group's broadcast and online platforms.

Meanwhile, the anniversary national celebrations will take place in Jinja city at St John SSS Wakitaka in Jinja northern division on Friday (January 26).

President Museveni is expected to officiate at the event.

"As usual, the district celebrations shall be held throughout the country to commemorate this significant day at the venues selected by the district leadership on Friday or on a date after the national celebrations," the Minister for the Presidency, Milly Babalanda, said in the buildup to the day.

This year's theme is: Building a country we shall cherish.

"The theme takes recognitions of all the efforts and sacrifices made by the brave men and women to liberate Uganda from anti-people forces that had held citizens hostage during the immediate post-independence era of our country," said Babalanda.

She said the theme "fits into the wider NRM Manifesto 2021-26 theme in which His Excellency the President and NRM party committed to 'secure the future of all Ugandans' over the next five years".

The national organizing committee has since invited no more than 800 dignitaries "to be sat in the presidential tent in strict observance to the COVID-19 standard operating procedures", according to Babalanda.

When she addressed a press conference on Monday, Babalanda told reporters that at the time, the national organizing committee had not received any indications of state visitors to grace the occasion and said she would provide an update on this matter as new developments unfold.

"Security agencies have put in place the necessary security measures to secure the venue of the celebrations."

On the day of the celebrations, as many as 53 medals will be handed out to "deserving personalities", the minister said.

"One of the medalllists will be the former Kyabazinga of Busoga, His Royal Highness, Henry Wako Muloki OBE, who contributed greatly ans largely in the external wing of the struggle."