Budget must boost productivity, says Ocici

Kabale.

Experts want budget investment to prioritise grass root productivity in order to reduce household poverty.
Speaking on the sidelines of a business development training at Kigezi College - Butobere last week, Mr Charles Ocici, the Enterprise Uganda executive director, said to a larger extent, the value of any development must be reflected and derived from the degree to which communities can take advantage while carrying out various economic activities.
“If we don’t empower our people into commercial productivity, they will keep staring at electricity power lines crisscrossing their areas. Not even the best road network will have sufficient impact if they can’t use it for commercial activities,” he said.
The training organised by Enterprise Uganda sought to empower entrepreneurs from Kabale to benefit from part of the $20m (Shs75b) five-year Skills Development Project funded by the World Bank.
Mr Ocici said there was need for stakeholders to empower communities by consistently teaching them the value of shifting from subsistence to commercial production.
“Government needs to invest more resources in training people on how to use the limited resources at their disposal to establish individual or group micro enterprises and gradually grow them into medium levels or even beyond,” he said.
Mr David Bahati, the Finance state minister in charge of Planning, said government appreciates the need to empower communities into entrepreneurship, adding: “That is why we are counting on Enterprise Uganda when it comes to business management training”.