Museveni tips youth on development

President Museveni addresses youth at the National Leadership Institute, Kyankwanzi, at the weekend. PHOTO BY PPU

What you need to know:

  • Mr Museveni singled out commercial agriculture, industry, services and ICT as some of the areas that the youth can concentrate on in a bid to pull off the middle-income status target.
  • The President said the production of maize in the country now stands at four million tonnes annually and yet the consumption internally is only one million tonnes, leaving a surplus of three million

KYANKWANZI- President Museveni has urged the youth to be at the forefront of ensuring Uganda meets the target of a middle-income status by 2020.

Mr Museveni told more than 290 youth at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi at the weekend that if his target of achieving middle-income status by 2020 is to be realised, they have to be the trigger of economic transformation.

Mr Museveni singled out commercial agriculture, industry, services and ICT as some of the areas that the youth can concentrate on in a bid to pull off the middle-income status target. The youth were drawn from across the country for a two-month leadership course.

The appeal
“We shall modernise Uganda to become a middle-income country and a first world. Our people must transform economically. I, therefore, want you to be cadres of action,” Mr Museveni was quoted as saying in a State House statement.

“In the last 500 years, this is the first time for Uganda to have peace from one corner to another corner. Areas such as Karamoja had no peace. That is why somebody came with the medicine for the problems disturbing Uganda,” he added.

The President said the production of maize in the country now stands at four million tonnes annually and yet the consumption internally is only one million tonnes, leaving a surplus of three million that is exported to neighbouring countries such as South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He added that milk, whose production stands at 2.2 billion litres, has a surplus of 1.4 billion litres as Ugandans consume only 200 million litres. He said the surplus is sold to other East African countries.