State of The Nation Address 2020
State of The Nation Address 2020
State of The Nation Address 2020
By
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His Excellency the Vice President;
Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament;
His Lordship the Chief Justice;
Rt. Hon. Deputy Speaker of Parliament;
His Lordship the Deputy Chief Justice;
Rt. Hon. Prime Minister;
Rt. Hon. Deputy Prime Ministers;
Hon. Ministers;
Hon. Members of Parliament;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Distinguished Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen, all of you the citizens of Uganda
and our visitors.
Madam Speaker,
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While still fighting, precisely at Kanyaara camp in
Ngoma, the combined meeting of the High Command
and NRC, adopted the 10 points of NRM political
programme. These 10 points were:
POINT N0. 1
Restoration of Democracy
POINT N0. 2
Restoration of Security
POINT N0. 3
Consolidation of national unity and elimination of all
forms of sectarianism
POINT N0.4
Defending and consolidating national independence
POINT N0. 5
Building an independent, integrated and self-sustaining
national economy
POINT N0.6
Restoration and improvement of social services and
rehabilitation of war–ravaged areas
POINT N0. 7
Elimination of corruption and the misuse of power
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POINT N0. 8
Redressing errors that have resulted in the dislocation
of some sections of the population
POINT N0. 9
Co-operation with other African countries
POINT N0. 10
Following an economic strategy of a mixed economy
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The other economy is the Vulnerable Economy. This
vulnerable economy, also happens to be the
economy of leisure and pleasure. Leisure and
pleasure, are optional. If you can get them, it is all
right. If you cannot, you will, however, survive,
nevertheless. These are activities that add leisure
and pleasure to a human being; but, if necessary,
he/she can survive without them. They are optional
and additional. These are sectors like: tourism,
entertainment, bars, night-clubs, cruises on ocean-
liners, theatre-going, import-business for luxuries
(carpets, perfumes, wines, spirits, wigs, etc). Some
of these activities, are not only for pleasure, leisure
and optional, they are also parasitic. They take
nutrients from us and do not add any energies for
our growth. These are activities like the imports of
luxuries. Luxuries are good. We should, however,
produce them ourselves. It is so wrong to buy
luxuries from other countries when they buy little
from us. Banyankore call this: “obubaagyi”
(squandering wealth). Some of the leisure sectors,
although vulnerable, they are, at least, beneficial.
These are sectors like tourism, entertainment, etc.
They bring in money instead of taking out money ─
out of Uganda.
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Nevertheless, to have a firm economy, we must go
back to the Bible, in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 7
Verses 26-27. It talks of a foolish man that built his
house on sand: “But everyone who hears these words of
mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish
man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the
floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house;
and it fell ─ and great was its fall”.
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to implement, in spite of the endless opposition that
we always face.
We have built a strong Army; we have built a
powerful LC system, the fact that it is not well
facilitated financially notwithstanding; we have
surplus electricity on account of the correct
prioritization, with Parliament support, in 2006; we
have a good road network of tarmac roads, totaling
5,111kms; on account of our correct agricultural
policy, we have alot of agricultural products for food-
security and for commerce in the form of: bananas,
maize, beans, irish-potatoes, cassava, coffee, tea,
cotton, cocoa, milk, beef, fish, poultry, eggs, flowers,
etc., etc. Apart from feeding us, these agricultural
products end up by earning for us US$2,005million
(49% of total merchandise exports) if we take the
year 2019. Even in this lockdown, since March, the
following agricultural products have earned for us as
follows:
(a) Coffee:
March - US$45.87million
April - US$36.928million
May - ……………
(b) Tea:
March - US$5.15million
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April - US$6.145million
May - ……………
(c) Fish:
March - US$14.98million
April - US$6.831million
May - ……………..
(e) Maize:
March - US$10.23million
April - US$6.256million
May - …………….
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economy is standing up and expanding, especially in
agriculture and industry.
If we take industry, in just the last few months of
this crisis of the virus, by March, 2020, we had only
two factories, known as Saraya East Africa Limited
and the Luwero Industries making sanitizers. We
now have 107 factories. By March, 2020, there was
not even one factory making masks in Uganda and
we were told that there was a global shortage, etc. I
told some of our factories including Nytil, UIRI, NEC,
etc., to make these masks. We now have factories
making the masks ─ we received requests from 61
factories but, only 10 have been certified. There was
a big shortage of PPEs in the World. I told some of
our factories, including Mulwana, to solve this
problem. They have risen to the occasion and they
are producing the PPEs.
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The Import Bill of Uganda is normally US$7billion
per year broken down as:
When you look through this list, you see that there
is no reason why we should import many of these
items: medicines, textiles, leather products,
industrial sugar for use by coca-cola, industrial
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starch for use by the Pharmaceutical Industries,
paper, packaging materials, glass products,
automobiles, bicycles, etc., etc. Many of these can
and will be made here.
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of the services that have durable demand that is not
easily affected by crises.
In agriculture, we have: bananas; maize; cassava;
beans; irish-potatoes; sweet potatoes; millet; sugar-
cane; cattle for dairy products; cattle for beef and
leather; coffee; tea; cocoa; and fish. We are going to
produce more and better each of these 14 crops or
livestock activities and process industrially each one
of them to achieve the full spectrum benefits of each
for the local, regional and international markets. I
can give a few examples to illustrate this point.
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You come to cassava. Out of cassava you can get
pharmaceutical grade starch to use in making
tablets. We have a young pharmaceutical industry
(making medicines). Making tablets, for instance,
needs high grade starch. This is now being imported
from China and India. This cost adds 7% to the cost
of medicine per unit, moreover, in foreign currency.
We are getting cooking gas from the alcohol from the
cassava starch. Animal feeds can be made from the
cassava flour. Uganda has been importing animal
feeds worth Shs.28billion per year. Yet, these are
from cassava, maize, etc ─ crops that we have in
plenty here ─ cassava, 4.1million tonnes per annum;
and maize, 5million tonnes per annum. I have
already mentioned the issue of industrial grade
sugar for use by soft drinks makers like coca-cola
and pharmaceutical grade sugar for use in making
baby medicines that need sweeteners. With Uganda
alone, we import industrial grade sugar worth
US$40.251million per annum. Wasted foreign
exchange; yet, we are suffering with unsold drinking
sugar that simply needs more refinement to save the
US$40.251million that is spent on that unnecessary
import. I have not checked on whether our people
have isolated the amount of pharmaceutical grade
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sugar that is needed to sweeten all the baby
medicines that we use in Uganda. However, Uganda
imports medicines for humans and livestock
including vaccines, worth US$383.035million per
year. We intend to make most of these here and also
to make most of the inputs (raw-materials) here.
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big regional market created by the African Pan-
Africanists eversince the time of the Lagos Plan of
Action; and huge international markets availed to
Africa, Uganda included, on account of the historical
factors that favour Africa.
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The above, is all based on the utilization of our
agriculture potential and integrating it with
manufacturing (industry). How about then,
minerals, forestry and the human resource (products
of the brain through IT, engineering, etc.)? There is
even bigger potential there. We are already self-
sufficient in cement and we are exporting cement
worth US$57million (2019), a decline from
US$103million exported in 2013, due to the
increased internal usage of cement on account of the
heavy infrastructure investments we are
undertaking and the growth in the real estate sector.
We produce 289,183 metric tonnes of recycled steel
(mitayimbwa, etc.) and we earn US$110 million from
exporting steel products. We are in the process of
developing vertically integrated steel industry from
our iron-ore (obutare) at Usukuru in Tororo, Muko
in Rubaanda and Butogota in Kanungu. The global
steel industry is US$2.5trillion. Although we are
making steel products using recycled scrap, strong
structures like dams need fresh and alloyed steel
that we are still importing. We end up using
US$444.619millions for this imported higher quality
steel products. This we are going to end by
developing our own vertically integrated steel
industry as already pointed out.
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We built a Gold Refinery at Entebbe. That gold
refinery was and is still being fought by the neo-
colonial agents. We shall, however, defeat them. The
refinery is earning US$1.256billion per annum.
When I was trying to control the mining of gold in
Uganda, I was opposed even by members of
Parliament. They do not want Uganda to have a Gold
Refinery. Refineries do not belong to countries like
Uganda. They should be in Dubai, South Africa, etc.,
but not in Uganda, according to these enemies. We
say: “No, the Gold Refinery in Uganda will be
defended by all the policy instruments”. Now that
gold is being refined here, Madam Nakyobe, using
my small innovation fund, should start to teach
some of the grand-children the skills of jewellery.
The rich Ugandan ladies will be able to buy the gold
jewellery made here instead of squandering money
buying the same from distant sources. We already
have a good ceramics’ industry at Kapeeka, making
ceramic tiles, saving US$28.5million in imports and
also bringing in US$3.05millions earned from
exports. These ceramic tiles are from our clay
(eibuumba). When the copper mining resumes at
Kilembe, that sector will be linked to the making of
cables for electricity, transformers for electricity,
etc., rather than what was happening in the 1950s
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and 1960s when the copper would only be processed
to 94% purity (blister copper), that could only be
exported as a semi-processed raw-material. It could
not be used in our cables’ industry. To do that, you
need to purify copper to 99.9%, known as cathodes
copper. Even uranium, I rejected the plans of the
neo-colonial agents of exporting uranium so that
others use it to generate electricity when Uganda has
only a total potential of 4000mgwts on all the River Nile
sites and those of its tributaries. A country like Japan
generates a total of 298,350mgwts. Where will Uganda
get all the power it needs if hydro-power is not enough?
Or has it been biologically proven that Africans do not
need electricity? As long as I am in charge of the
country, no uranium will ever be exported from
Uganda. Let it remain in the ground. When solar-power
becomes as cheap as hydro-power, then the politics and
economics of energy will change. Until then, sita-kange
(I do not give up what is mine).
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Our scientists, in particular, apart from being active
in the agro-based industries of starch, processed
fruits, dairy products, etc., they have also moved
into engineering of designing and fabricating auto-
mobiles, the bio-chemistry of vaccines, etc. Besides,
the private sector is also active in import-
substitution by assembling computers, TV-sets,
mobile phones, radio-sets, etc., here.
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Besides, the Minister of Finance, Planning and
Economic Development is proposing the following
measures, to provide liquidity to private firms that
have been affected by the COVI-19 Lockdown:
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(vii) For those unable to pay their loans, Government
through the Bank of Uganda has already put in the
gazette the measures to support businesses; including
allowing extension of repayment periods,
postponement of loan repayment for a limited period,
relaxing the conditions for non-performing loans,
reduction of reserve funds commercial banks are
required to keep with Bank of Uganda and creating a
special liquidity facility to rescue businesses that are
not able to meet operational costs due to low demand
or reduced production due to COVID-19;
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(xi) Provision of additional UGX 300 billion immediately to
boost agricultural production and productivity for
seedlings, fertilizers, irrigation, storage facilities and
value addition. The target crops are coffee, cotton, tea,
palm oil and other oil seeds, cassava, maize, cocoa and
dairy, beef, and fish production.
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Therefore, in conclusion, the pandemic should help
those who had not believed the NRM before that
there are two categories of the economy: the real
economy around the nine human needs of: food,
clothing, shelter, medicine, security, infrastructure,
health, education and spirituality and the leisure
and pleasure economy around: tourism,
entertainment, holiday-making, sports, concerts,
music, etc. The former is for survival and prosperity
and the latter is additional and optional.
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(iii) Late Dr. Kanyerezi Masembe; Chairman and Co-
founder of Kampala Hospital, former Head of the
Department of Internal Medicine at Makerere
University School of Medicine;
DATE BILL
02/06/2 The Administration of the Judiciary Bill, 2018
0
28/05/2 The National Payment Systems Bill, 2020
0
20/05/2 The National Local Content Bill, 2019
0
24/04/2 The Appropriation Bill, 2020
0
21/04/2 The Excise Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2020
0
16/04/2 The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2020
0
15/04/2 The Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020
0
14/04/2 The Stamp Duty (Amendment) Bill, 2020
0
14/04/2 The Tobacco Control (Amendment) Bill, 2020
0
18/03/2 The Sugar Bill, 2019 which had been returned to the
0 House by H.E the President in accordance with Article
91(3)(B) of the Constitution and Rule 142 of the Rules of
Procedure.
05/03/2 The Electoral Commission [Amendment] Bill, 2019
0
05/03/2 The Political Parties and Organizations [Amendment]
0 Bill, 2019.
04/03/2 The Local Government [Amendment] Bill, 2019
0
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03/03/2 The Parliamentary Elections [Amendment] Bill, 2019.
0
27/02/2 The Presidential Elections [Amendment] Bill, 2019
0
31/01/2 The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets
0 (Amendment) Bill, 2019
29/01/2 The Traffic and Road Safety Act 1998 (Amendment) Bill,
0 2019
27/11/1 The Institute of Parliamentary Studies Bill, 2019
9
03/10/1 The Physical Planning (Amendment) Bill, 2018
9
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