The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni reiterated his call to stop the exportation of raw materials, saying that Uganda loses a lot of money annually due to such an economic undertaking.
He instead advised Ugandans and foreign investors to work towards adding value to the country’s products to help the country achieve the much-desired socio-economic transformation agenda.
“We have been funding these efforts (of the private sector) but initially we were getting disturbances from the Ministry of Finance because it was not supporting them fully. For example, Dr. Muranga, I have been with her for a very long time but when you send her, they give her small money in portions. Why don’t you give her enough money since you are losing enough money each year in exporting? Why don’t you see that, that is a big loss. When you export unprocessed raw materials, you lose a lot of money. Then you have an Auditor General, why don’t you audit this lost value? Why have you never reported it?” the President expounded.
“When you export unprocessed coffee, you get 2.5 US Dollars per kilogram. That same kilo if you add value to it, you earn about 40 US Dollars and you are losing that every year. And that is no problem for the Auditor General or Committees of Parliament. Why don’t you see this loss and especially when an old man like me keeps on telling you and you have seen what other countries have done. A country like South Korea doesn’t have the resources that Uganda has but they are intelligent. They are mainly using intellectual labour. Therefore, I appeal to everybody concerned to wake up,” he added.
