We are officially out of the prolonged battle with hostile forces who fought tooth and nail to frustrate efforts by the government to streamline the coffee industry for the good of both the economy and farmers at the grass roots. Distractors wanted to make people believe that the intentions of the government, particularly, towards farmers were bad ones that would ultimately hurt the impressively burgeoning trade. As expected, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) has been scrapped off to pave the way for a more efficient handling of the coffee industry while also closing the vent previously used by dissenters infiltrating UCDA to entrench opposition against the very system paying them. It was silently reported that officials at UCDA would distribute coffee seedlings to opposition supporters, indicating it was a donation from the opposition while sidelining supporters of NRM. With the vigour with which our friends in red caps fought to frustrate the closure of the entity, one would barely fail to believe this allegation.
First forward, however, an efficient handling of the efforts to boost coffee productivity will not only upgrade its exportablity but also boost farmers’ incomes and standards of living, and ultimately, the support of the ruling party.
Not only has the government planned to uplift its population out of poverty through enhancing coffee production. There are a wide range of other strategies, most salient of which is the Parish Development Model – PDM.
President Museveni is currently on a nationwide tour to fast track the progress of PDM, a poverty alleviation strategy to pull 39% of the population from the subsistence economy into the money economy.
Under the National Development Plan III, with the parish as the lowest administrative and operational hub for delivering services closer to the people, and hence fostering economic development.
PDM seeks to lift Uganda’s population from the subsistence to active participation in the money economy, and encompasses seven pillars that include; Production, Storage, Processing and Marketing; Infrastructure and Economic Services; Financial Inclusion; Social Services; Mindset change; Parish Based Management Information System; and Governance and Administration.
In its maiden year, 2021/22 financial year, the Government sent 17 million shillings to each parish as a revolving fund under PDM. The money was sent to organized groups at Parish level, and those groups in turn lent the money in form of loans to their members at low interest rates.
In the following fiscal year, 2022/23, government increase 17 million to 100 million shillings per parish and the same amount was maintained for the 2023/ 2024 fiscal year as has already been disbursed for the current financial year, 2024/2025.
Under the plan, 100 million shillings is sent directly to the Sacco accounts in each parish, from which households could borrow and invest in income-generating activities.
However, since the launch of the PDM in February 2022, a total of 590.2 billion shillings had been disbursed to all the 10,459 parishes nationwide, translating into 50 million per parish by the close of 2023.
This fell short of 100 million shillings which government intended to disburse to every parish in the 2022/23 financial years.
In its initial stage of implementation, the programme designed to alleviate poverty at parish level looked falling short.
Various Members of Parliament, especially on the opposition side questioned how 17 million and the subsequent 100 million shillings could pull a whole parish out of poverty. These fear have since been erased by the evident success stories of beneficiaries during the ongoing tour of the President, like in the case of Florence Nabutono of Kasasira Town Council in Kibuku who impressed the fountain of honor with what she had done with the shillings one million given to her.
MORE FUNDS IN 2023/24 FINANCIAL YEAR
Among the objectives of the 2023/24 financial year budget was full-scale operationalization of the Parish Development Model.
The key priorities funded to achieve this include; boosting household incomes and micro enterprises; commercializing agriculture to enhance production and
productivity and improve competitiveness of agricultural products; supporting private sector growth; and investing in the People of Uganda among others.
In order to effectively implement these strategic priorities, the Government detailed key actions to undertake.
For instance, government outlined PDM to boost household incomes and micro enterprises.
To achieve this, government allocated 1.1 trillion shillings to Parish Development Model in the 2023/24 financial year and another 1.1 trillion for the current financial year.
70 MILLION JOBS
It is worth noting that President Museveni while speaking at the 2023 commemorations of the International Labor Day in Namutumba, said PDM has the ability to create 70 million jobs in Ugandan homesteads.
“I ask all citizens to support the government programs that are focused on job and wealth creation, such as the Parish Development Model that will help generate enough jobs for the entire population. If we implement seriously the Parish Development Model, we shall generate 70 million jobs in the 7 million homesteads across the country through modern agriculture alone,” he said.
President Museveni, however, acknowledged that corruption is a huge setback to the country’s development programmes and its agenda.
“There are two major hindrances to the country’s development agenda; the corrupt political class and civil service who either demand for bribes or delay the decision making process, which increases the cost of doing business in the country. I am going to have a big fight with the corrupt. I don’t want you to fall victim of this negative vice. Let’s join hands and fight corruption and be part of the future of the new Africa,” he said.
With numerous strict measures to curb swindling of PDM funds being undertaken, there is hope that the well intentioned objective of socio-econocally transforming the country could be on course to get realized.
For Buganda, particularly, sabotage, disinformation and propaganda is believed to have greatly influenced the outcome of the 2021 general election in favor of Mr Kyagulanyi. Propagandists successfully managed to paint a picture that the government didn’t care about its people, riding on the tribal card to further entrench their hate. As a result, the people found themselves casting their vote not for reason but for emotions. With key interactions like PDM directly involving the common person at the grassroots level, anybody would surprised if the opposition can still grab the undeserved edge they did in 2021.
The Writer is the Assistant Resident City Commissioner for Masaka City
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