________________

OPINION

Hgk Nyakoojo

By HGK Nyakoojo

I, and perhaps a few other Ugandans have lost count of the schemes the NRM government has conjured up over their years in office in an effort to get us and especially rural dwellers, to graduate to a higher socio-economic level.

Some decades ago there was a scheme originally established for the then war-ravaged Luwero Triangle which greedy politicians hijacked and extended to all districts without increasing the amount of money. An MP who happened to be Deputy Minister in the ministry supervising me at the Uganda Export Promotion Council (now Uganda Export Promotion Board)  summoned me and asked me what would be the best way to use that money for his area in the Masaka subregion.

Not being a politician myself and therefore not concerned about pleasing all voters as individuals, I told the Deputy Minister that if I were in his position, I would identify a proven entrepreneur from the constituency, discuss two or three proposals that the general population in the area could link into for their livelihood.

I gave the example of an industrial starch manufacturing business based on cassava supplies from farmers in the area. Starch has local, regional and international market prospects. I told the boss that such a venture would be more likely to succeed if the principal investor is a proven entrepreneur. I am not sure, but have my doubts if my boss deputy minister took my advice. What I know is that most MPs took the money and did very little if anything to alleviate poverty in their areas.

Currently, all the rage is about the Parish Development Model or PDM. However, the media is awash with stories of PDM-related mismanagement and corruption and of some of those allocated some money going ahead to lavish onto themselves meat and chicken meals and marrying an additional wife or two. In other words, like its predecessors, PDM is unlikely to develop any parishes. Why? Because not all people are cut out to be successful entrepreneurs. What results from the current way of doing things is that at best, a whole parish ends up doing the same thing inefficiently without ever thinking of where they will sell what they produce, if anything. A proven entrepreneur would consider all that.

I would propose that the advice I proffered to the Deputy Minister many years ago, be looked at and perhaps refined by the Government. Constituencies which comprise many parishes should identify a local entrepreneur; get a competent professional to carry out rapid assessments of their areas’ resource endowments; hire the same professional or another to carry out a feasibility study or studies of different investment options and select one to pilot, with the selected entrepreneur.

If funds permit and if the pilot investment proves itself, then other enterprises may be established using the same model taking account of lessons learned from the pilot investment. Since the entrepreneur would be investing funds belonging to the community, they should be made to sign an enforceable contract that would include supervision and extension services to the raw Material producers; and guarantee their buying the raw material from the community before venturing to procure from the rest of Uganda.

What is more there should be clauses that oblige the entrepreneur to pay locals a fair price guaranteed say for three years  and then revised and guaranteed for a further period taking account of changed circumstances for all including the entrepreneur. Obviously this idea can be improved based on professional feasibility studies and on socio-economic considerations. For example the form of community involvement in the governance systems and practices of the enterprise will need to be worked out depending on the specific locality and product or products being targeted.

I am convinced that this approach has a more than fifty percent chance of reducing rural poverty than what is in place today, because what government scheme has failed due to politicisation in the past is simply repeated and repeated under a different name – currently PDM. And yes, success will also hinge on a genuine zero-tolerance for corruption by whomsoever committed.

The writer is a trade and business consultant