By C. Ahimbisibwe, R. Baguma & W. Muhwezi
President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday opened a $2m (sh3.4b) cotton ginnery in Bushenyi district.
Bushenyi Cotton ginnery, owned by Nithin Patel and Magan Patel, employs 300 people and processes cotton grown by farmers in Bushenyi, Kamwenge, Kasese, Rukungiri, Mbarara and Kanungu districts.
He said Africans were lagging behind economically because they were being cheated on the world market.
Museveni said after the defeat of the murderous regimes, the next war was to defend Africans from being cheated and this would be achieved through industrialisation.
“We never process our goods fully. We sell bananas in raw form without getting wine from them or adding value to them first,” he said.
Museveni also commissioned an operation theatre at Rugazi Health Centre IV.
He asked Bushenyi district to gazette an estate for industrial development, saying the Government would avail amenities such as electricity and a road network.
Museveni said Britain, which does not grow coffee, was benefiting more from coffee than Uganda.
He said a kilogram of coffee in raw form costs about $1 (sh1,700), while processed coffee goes at $10 per kilogram.
“We are on a war to ensure that we process our coffee instead of exporting it in raw form. This is a major war because we will kick the bellies of those who think we Africans are stupid,” the President said, adding, “We shall solve the problem of unemployment by promoting industrialisation. This is the Movement plan to development. The creation of employment should be in line with our achievements.”
Later addressing a rally at Kyambura Primary School in Bunyaruguru county in Bushenyi, Museveni asked people to support the opening of political space in next month’s referendum.
“If we open the political space, we shall bring discipline and efficiency in the Movement,” Museveni said, adding that the Movement had become stronger with the departure to opposition parties of those who were opposing it from within.
Ends