NRM aims to fulfill 84% of 2021 election promises by 2025

The overall performance assessment report of the 2020/2021-2025/2026 NRM manifesto presented last week covering the period 2021 to August 2024, captured by the Manifesto Implementation Unit indicates that 35 percent of the total commitments were achieved. Between November 25 and December 5, different ministries presented the status of these commitments in the annual manifesto week at the Office of the Prime Minister.

The Director Manifesto Implementation unit, Mr Willis Bashaasha, told Monitor in an interview that 49 percent of the commitments are ongoing and will be achieved by the end of the term.

NRM government, he said, anticipates achieving at least 84 percent of the overall targets The assessment report indicates that the sector of job creation achieved 184 commitments out of its total 576, with 277 ongoing. It further shows that the sectors of education, health, and water have achieved 66 of their 157 total commitments as 77 are ongoing.

In the area of justice and equity, NRM has achieved at least 15 of its 43 targets. Its protection of life and property has registered almost half of its 29 targets. Three of the five commitments in the achievement of economic and political integration have been achieved, with two ongoing, according to the report. “Looking at the circumstances, where we are coming from, and where we started, I feel we are on the right course,” said Mr Bashaasha. He said most projects in progress are at more than 70 percent in terms of completion with hope that they will be completed by the end of the term.

“So it’s a question of now prioritisation by the different implementing agencies to make sure that the resources available are put to the right use and we can be able, at least, even if we can deliver 47 percent of that, still would score 80 percent, which would still be a good score,” he said.

Mr Bashaasha also said some of the projects have a longer implementation life than the political term but what matters is the commitment to have them concluded even if they are not 100 percent complete.

Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja told reporters on November 15, that the manifesto commitments were developed in line with the National Development Plan III and has guided service delivery since then.

Ms Nabbanja said government has grown Uganda’s GDP by 6 percent in the Financial Year 2023/2024 compared to 5.3 percent in financial year 2022/2023. “This year’s growth of 6 percent is even more impressive when compared to sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 3.8 percent and the global average of 2.9 percent projected for the year 2024,” she said.

Achievements

In terms of performance, Ms Nabbanja said a total of 1.2 million jobs from the manufacturing sector, services, Emyooga, Tourism, Judiciary and Presidential skilling initiative were created in the period under review. This, she added, led to the growth of formal jobs to 3.1 million and their informal counterpart to 4.6 million. At least 10,585 verified Parish Development Model (PDM) Saccos, Ms Nabbanja said received a capitalisation of Shs200m as of June 10. These are part of the 10,594 PDM Saccos. “Over 1,195,718 beneficiaries in 1,405,222 households across the country had received the Parish Revolving Fund and invested in various production enterprises as prescribed by the PDM guidelines,” she said.

Challenges faced

Mr Bashaasha noted that some challenges like the issues of land acquisition have remained a major hindrance in project implementation. “Because land is a constitutional issue, it belongs to the people, so that also needs almost an alternative budget compared to the money needed for implementation. It delays the projects, inflates the costs of the project and breeds corruption in the process of procurement,” Mr Bashaasha said. He also highlighted the limited resources to implement some of the projects, corruption, and mindset change among other challenges. “I appeal to citizens to be more patriotic in our way of looking at our things because at the end of the day, these started as political pledges but now that it is the party in government they become a blueprint for service delivery of which they intend to benefit every citizen,” Mr Bashaasha said. 

Other achievements 

The agricultural sector also grew by 5.1 percent, contributing 24.6 percent to the country’s GDP. “To enhance social inclusion, the government has implemented the Emyooga Fund, Women Entrepreneurs fund, Social Assistance Grant for Empowerment National Special Grant for PWDs and Special Enterprise Grant for Older Persons,” Prime minister Robinah Nabbanja said.

In Education,Ms Nabbanja revealed that the unit cost of UPE increased from Shs8, 000 to Shs20, 000 per pupil per year, for Universal Secondary Education (USE) increased from Shs123, 000 to Shs175, 000 per student per year The NRM government also indicated that in the period of three years, the Agriculture sector grew by 5.1 percent from Shs39.1trillion in Financial Year 2021/2022 to Shs43.9 trillion in Financial Year 2022/2023. Ms Nabbanja said there was increased food and cash crops production, livestock, fish volume as well as improved quality of coffee, dairy, fish and tea production in the Financial Year 2023/2024.

In her submission, Ms Nabbanja said the government has so far constructed and completed 12 markets which are now operational. These include Kabale, Mbarara, Kasese, Arua, Soroti, Busia central markets, among others.