President Yoweri Museveni has revealed that government is very aware and recognizes the contributions of older persons towards Uganda’s socio-economic transformation.
In his speech read by the Minister of State for Elderly Affairs, Hon. Dominic Mafwabi Gidudu who represented him during the International Day of Older Persons in Nebbi District, today Saturday 1st October,2022, the President said when NRM government captured power in 1986, it came upon with a non-discriminative holistic approach of elevating all people in the country irrespective of the age, sex or social background.
And this, according to President Museveni has helped every Ugandan to benefit from government programs such as Mass immunization, Universal Primary Education (UPE), Universal Secondary Education (USE) among others.
“I want to congratulate all the older persons of Uganda for reaching this day. Since 1986 the NRM has been successful in its long journey of developing societies. We acted like the wise man who built his house on a rock. Our foundation is established on the rock because when we came to power, we first identified the 10 bottlenecks that would deter the country’s development,” H.E the President explained.
He added, “If we had not addressed the above challenges, Uganda would have been a backward society even now. The NRM principle goal, is transforming the society from subsistence to money economy.”
President Museveni further urged leaders to engage and focus their energy on helping people in improving household income.
“Now that we have peace, leaders should help Ugandans including the elderly to engage in the four sectors of job and wealth creation namely; commercial agriculture, manufacturing/industries, services like communication and entertainment, transport, hospitality and the fourth one being Information Communication Technology-ICT.”
“Government recognizes the role of older citizens in the transformation agenda of Uganda,” Mr. Museveni affirmed.
The Nebbi District LCV Chairperson, Emmanuel Urombi, expressed his sincere gratitude to the NRM government for choosing his district to host celebrations of this year’s International Day of Older Persons.
Mr. Urombi also praised President Museveni for being a promise keeper, truth teller and a peace maker who preaches Pan-Africanism.
“Nebbi remains loyal to NRM government. Our people in Nebbi believe in government programs like Parish Development Model (PDM), and Industrial Parks but how will they be executed when we don’t have good roads? Please Hon. Minister talk to the President that he considers putting up good roads in our district. We believe His Excellency and the team will act accordingly,” he said.
The Development Partners delegation led by World Health Organisation (WHO) Officer-in-Charge, Dr. Bayo Fatunmbi, called upon all stakeholders to commit themselves in taking care of the elderly by amplifying their voices and including them in the center of policies.
The Embassy of Ireland in Uganda Deputy Head of Cooperation, Ms. Anna Kilkenny said the elderly are a vulnerable group of who need to be shielded from the impact of the current economic and climate change shocks.
Ms. Anna said this can only be done through resilience that requires reliability, affordability and accessibly to basic needs.
She further credited government under the leadership of President Museveni for sustaining the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment (SAGE) scheme that has helped to improve the welfare of the elderly people in the country.
“The government of Uganda with support of the Ireland and other partners introduced the SAGE program to help the elder persons afford basic needs and I’m happy that currently over 380,000 elder persons are financed through SAGE. I commend the government of Uganda for that,” Ms. Anna asserted.
Mr. Charles Isabirye, Chairperson National Council for Older Persons in Uganda also lauded government for always supporting and guiding the council in running its operations.
Mr. Isabirye further requested the President to always include the elderly in government development programs such as PDM, saying that they also have a brick to add on the development of Uganda.
“The theme therefore calls on all of us to recognize and include all of us the elder persons in the planning of social and economic aspects of this country. We are eagerly waiting for PDM funds to implement projects that will help us move from subsistence to money economy,” Mr. Isabirye added.
He also revealed that they have already assigned a total of Shs302 million that will be used to mobilise, sensitize the elderly to participate in government development programs countrywide.
“SAGE program has greatly contributed to the improvement of the welfare of the elderly people but we would like to request the President to at least reduce the beneficiary age from 80 to at least 70 years and also increase the monthly funds from Shs25,000 to Shs70,000,” he opined.
At the same event, Hajji Hassan Nakabaale,the Director of Corporate and Public Affairs at Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority (URBRA) gave out 30 mattresses and 30 blankets to Nebbi elderly persons who are 100 years old and above.
URBRA is a government agency in-charge of supervising and regulating pension and retirement benefits in Uganda.
“I encourage Ugandans to save for retirement when they are still young so as to enjoy their old age,” Hajji Nakabaale advised.
The government in partnership with Centenary Bank also gave out SAGE funds to the elderly persons who attended the event.
Running under an overall umbrella theme, “Resilience of Older Persons in a Changing World”, this year’s annual event has been focused on highlighting the resilience of older women in the face of environmental, social, economic and lifelong inequalities, raising awareness of the importance of improved world-wide data collection, disaggregated by age and gender as well as calling on member states, UN entities, UN Women, and civil society to include older women in the center of all policies, ensuring gender equality as described in the Secretary-General’s report, ‘Our Common Agenda’.
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