While campaigning in Luuka District, on October 1, NUP presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, castigated the Parish Development Model (PDM), a policy of government targeting the over 33 percent Ugandans who are still outside the money economy. In fact, he vowed to freeze the fund if he is elected President. Instead, in his view, he would put that money into the health and education sectors.
His wayward political statement notwithstanding, it is totally inconceivable what exactly informed Mr Kyagulanyi to make such a statement. Is it because the programme has been so successful and, therefore, he thinks it will give President Museveni milage or was he less thoughtful in the heat of the moment?
Mr Kyagulanyi should know by now that even if the government were to commit half of its annual budget to education and the health sector to attain world-class standards, this alone would not shift our people out of poverty.
For the people to make an economic shift from a subsistence lifestyle, the government must pursue deliberate programmes of capitalising the citizens and offer proper guidance for them to engage in profitable ventures that generate regular income. The PDM policy is not set in stone. Countries all over the world have pursued similar programmes to shift their people to the wealth cluster, and the results are there for everyone to appreciate.
Indeed, President Museveni saw this much earlier. Even when he built schools, hospitals and modern roads, he knew so well that Ugandans needed to shift substantially from their subsistence lifestyles and move into the money economy. He, therefore, began socioeconomic programmes aimed at changing their economic outlook.
Even before PDM, there was Boona Bagagawale, Entandikwa. Operation Wealth Creation and now Emyoga, Youth Livelihood, among others. The usual naysayers are quick to say these programmes were all in vain. However, they forget that it is through such deliberate programmes that poverty in Uganda has been reduced to 16.1 percent, according to the National Household Survey 2023/2024.
They forget that it is through such interventions that we are currently the leading exporter of most cash crops in the region. Uganda is now the Number One coffee exporter in Africa. We feed the region and the rest of the world with maize, milk, beans, cocoa, vanilla, etc. For one to fully appreciate the value of PDM, one must study Muhammad Yunus and his microfinance support programmes that turned around the Indonesian poor masses.
Prof Yunus pioneered microfinance to give the unbanked rural poor, especially women, access to credit for self-employment and small businesses. The aim was to create bottom-up development where economic growth starts with the most marginalised. In 1976, Yunus took matters into his own hands, loaning very small sums of money, reportedly between $27, and $42 local women who needed to buy materials to produce their products.
In 1983, Yunus formally opened the Grameen (Village) Bank, which served as a way to offer microcredit to entry-level and subsistence entrepreneurs. By June 2020, Grameen Bank had given $30.48 billion worth of loans to some of the world’s poorest people. Similarly, introduced in 2022, PDM is Uganda’s flagship poverty eradication and wealth creation programme. It targets the 39 percent of Ugandans in the subsistence economy, aiming to transition them into the money economy using parish-level Saccos.
The President’s call that everyone must join the money economy with a clear calculation is being realised. Every one of the 10,594 parishes nationwide receives Shs100m annually, directly credited to parish Sacco accounts. PDM funding for Greater Kampala Metropolitan will rise to Shs300m per parish, with special grants for persons with disabilities, village leaders, and religious leaders.
Mr Kyagulanyi should pick a lesson from President Museveni and Yunus. PDM emphasises borrower responsibility and accountability, trains and supports local financial institutions (Saccos) in the way Grameen trained its staff.