Uganda, under the leadership of His Excellency the President of the Republic of Uganda and National Chairman of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), General (Rtd.) Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, has over the years built a strong foundation of peace, stability and economic growth.
This foundation has enabled the country to pursue a development path focused on poverty reduction, wealth creation, improved household incomes, investment, employment and expanded opportunities for ordinary Ugandans.
Today, Uganda stands at an important point in its development journey, with an opportunity to build on the progress already made and translate the gains of stability into broader and more sustainable prosperity for its people.
The next chapter should therefore be about making the gains of stability work even harder for every Ugandan household.
Stability is not an end in itself. It is the foundation upon which investment, business, agriculture, industrialization and job creation can flourish.
Uganda’s economic performance in recent years provides encouraging evidence of this foundation. The National Planning Authority reported that the economy grew by 6.0 per cent in the financial year 2023/24, above the 5 per cent target, with agriculture, industry and services among the sectors contributing to this growth.
This progress is part of a longer development journey.
Over the years, the Government has introduced a range of interventions aimed at helping Ugandans move from subsistence to a more productive, commercial and money-based economy.
Programmes such as the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) and Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) placed emphasis on improving agricultural production and supporting farmers to participate more actively in the economy.
The Youth Venture Capital Fund was introduced to address one of the country’s major development challenges: access to affordable financing for young people. It was later complemented by the Youth Livelihood Programme, which expanded support for youth enterprises and income-generating activities.
Ugandans must be empowered with productive assets, skills, affordable financing, markets and opportunities to create sustainable wealth.
The introduction of Emyooga represented another important milestone in this direction.
The programme was designed to organize citizens into specialised enterprise groups and SACCOs while providing financing to enable them to participate in productive economic activities.
Through Emyooga and other interventions, Government has continued to promote financial inclusion and encourage citizens to participate more actively in the money economy.
Then came the Parish Development Model (PDM), which took the wealth-creation agenda even closer to the household.
Instead of development being viewed only through national statistics, PDM seeks to address the economic circumstances of households at the grassroots.
Its objective is to support households to move from subsistence into the money economy through productive enterprises, financial inclusion, infrastructure, mindset change and other forms of support.
This represents an important evolution in Uganda’s development strategy, from broad national programmes to interventions designed to reach ordinary households directly.
Government’s development approach has also increasingly recognized the important role played by women and the private sector in economic transformation.
The Generating Growth Opportunities and Productivity for Women Enterprises (GROW) Project was designed to improve access to entrepreneurial services and financing for women-owned businesses, enabling them to grow from small enterprises into larger and more productive businesses.
Official Government information indicates that the programme is being implemented across the country and targets women entrepreneurs, including those in refugee-hosting areas.
This is important because Uganda’s economic transformation cannot be complete if women, who constitute a significant part of the country’s entrepreneurial and agricultural workforce, are left behind.
The Uganda Development Bank (UDB) has also become an important instrument for providing long-term financing to strategic sectors of the economy, including agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, construction and services.
According to the FY2026/27 Budget Speech, Government has cumulatively capitalized UDB with Shs1.6 trillion, while the bank has extended more than Shs2.45 trillion in financing to over 600 businesses.
This demonstrates that Uganda’s economic strategy is not only about helping individuals establish small businesses but building enterprises capable of producing goods, creating employment, adding value to local resources and competing in regional and international markets.
The same philosophy is reflected in other government financing mechanisms, including the Agricultural Credit Facility and the Small Business Fund.
The FY2026/27 Budget Speech reports that the Agricultural Credit Facility has cumulatively disbursed Shs1.35 trillion to more than 14,000 beneficiaries, while the Small Business Fund has supported more than 4,000 small and medium enterprises.
Taken together, these interventions tell an important story about Uganda’s development journey.
NAADS, OWC, the Youth Venture Capital Fund, the Youth Livelihood Programme, Emyooga, PDM, GROW, UDB financing and other government initiatives should not necessarily be viewed as isolated programmes.
Rather, they can be understood as complementary instruments within a broader national ambition to increase production, expand access to capital, promote entrepreneurship, create employment and ultimately reduce household dependence on subsistence.
Of course, the existence of government programmes alone does not guarantee success but their effectiveness depends on responsible management, proper targeting, accountability, monitoring and, importantly, the willingness of beneficiaries to use the opportunities productively.
This is where the next chapter of Uganda’s transformation becomes particularly important.
The country must move from simply accessing government support to building sustainable enterprises.
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, through his various speeches, has consistently emphasised the importance of four key sectors for employment and wealth creation: commercial agriculture, industrialisation, services, and Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
These sectors provide a clear framework for Uganda’s economic transformation.
By investing in and taking advantage of these areas, Ugandans can create wealth and employment while making effective use of the peace, security and stability that the NRM Government has worked to consolidate over the years.
The various government interventions also demonstrate that different categories of Ugandans are being supported to participate in the country’s economic transformation.
From farmers and women entrepreneurs to young people, small businesses and larger enterprises, the overall objective is to create an enabling environment in which citizens can improve their livelihoods and contribute to national development.
Uganda’s stability provides an important foundation for investors, while infrastructure, energy, ICT, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, minerals, and oil and gas present significant opportunities for expanding the productive economy.
As the country continues to strengthen its economic foundation, investment in infrastructure, human capital, technology and productive sectors will remain critical to achieving higher levels of economic transformation.
The Ministry of Finance has projected continued economic growth and emphasised investment, private-sector development and expansion of the economy under the country’s long-term transformation agenda.
The message for Uganda is therefore one of confidence and responsibility whereby the foundation has already been laid and the task now is to build higher.
Uganda’s next chapter should be about transforming stability into investment, investment into production, production into jobs, and jobs into improved household incomes.
The ultimate measure of development should be reflected in the lives of ordinary Ugandans: the farmer whose enterprise expands; the young person who starts a successful business; the woman who grows from a small trader into an employer; the manufacturer who adds value to Ugandan raw materials and the household that gradually moves from subsistence into sustainable prosperity.
As the nation looks towards the future, the opportunity is clear and We must build on the foundation of peace, stability and economic progress established over the years and move confidently into a new era of investment, production, innovation, employment and shared prosperity.
Uganda’s next chapter is therefore not simply about what Government can do for the people but It is about what Government, the private sector, communities and individual citizens can achieve together by making full use of the opportunities created by a stable and increasingly growing economy.
With continued investment, responsible leadership, active citizen participation and effective implementation of government programmes, Uganda can turn its stability into greater productivity, its productivity into jobs and its economic growth into improved livelihoods for millions of Ugandans.
That is the path towards a more prosperous Uganda.
Author: Kyomya James
Deputy Resident City Commissioner, Soroti City West Division
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