Museveni to directly supervise anti-poverty drive

By Vision Reporter

President Yoweri Museveni has said that the NRM Government is committed totally to the supervision of the poverty eradication drive in the country.

The President made the remarks on Monday at the Jinja district headquarters where he addressed a gathering of market vendors and other stakeholders shortly after commissioning the new Jinja market that cost sh28b.

The venture was funded by the African Development Bank (ADF).

President Museveni told the excited crowd that the market was built with the aim of facilitating all the vendors that operated from the market without discrimination. He allayed fears of some vendors being denied the infrastructure that was built to facilitate them in their efforts to eradicate poverty.

Museveni said the NRM government had paid its debt by building the market. He revealed that the Government has been providing ‘wananchi’ with operational capital facilities through NAADS and other channels but that they did not benefit because of corruption. He informed them that he decided to disband NAADS because it had become a den of thieves.

The President informed the gathering that he decided to assign UPDF officers the role of distributing seeds and breeding materials as part of the efforts by government to ensure achieving the goal of eradicating poverty.

He was pleased that people in villages have already benefited from the Government efforts. The President said that more funds have been provided towards the distribution of more coffee seedlings in the area adding that the next target was to facilitate the urban poor.

He said the construction of the markets in different parts of the country was designed to address the issue of the urban poor.

Talking specifically about the Jinja market facility, Museveni expressed his appreciation on the quality of the market. He assured the people that NRM Government would systematically build the roads within Jinja Municipality. He was also pleased to inform them that the construction of the Jinja-Kamuli road would soon be accomplished.

The Minister of Local Government, Adolf Mwesige, saluted the President for facilitating the construction of the market. He revealed that the 3,920 vendors, who previously operated from the old facility, would be returned to the reconstructed market at no cost. He commended him for enabling the urban poor to use the markets as part of the measures to ensure employment.

The African Development Bank Representative, Dawit Gebremedhin, disclosed that the Bank has provided US$94 million for the markets projects in Uganda. He said it was part of ADB’s support to the efforts of the Government of Uganda to expand the infrastructure. He said that ADB was also supporting the Government in the Education and Health sectors.