By Ebi Kesiena
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has stressed the urgent need for socio-economic transformation in Africa rather than maintaining sustainable underdevelopment.
Museveni noted this during his address at the recent World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA)-Africa Heads of State Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to President Museveni, there is a pressing need for African countries to have access to loans that drive prosperity, adding that this will in the long run propel socio-economic transformation.
Attributing Africa’s current crisis to longstanding philosophical, ideological, and economic mistakes dating back to the 1960s, the Ugandan President advocated for a paradigm shift away from mere quantitative growth towards qualitative change.
“When you see the crisis in many African countries, the collapse of the State, we predicted this in the 1960s. But I was very happy to hear the President of the World Bank talking about prosperity instead of profiteering. These were his own words. This has been the problem; aid has been for profiteering. The World Bank people and other groups have been talking about sustainable development, even in your document I have seen those words there. I’m now going to be 80 years old. I have never seen a sustainable pregnancy; that a woman is pregnant this year, the pregnancy continues next year, 3 years and 4 years, it never happens,” he said.
Furthermore, President Museveni addressed the factors hindering growth in Africa, particularly the lack of funding for growth-oriented initiatives like private sector-led development. He emphasized the necessity of low-cost production factors such as transportation, electricity, and manufacturing funding to facilitate private sector growth.
Highlighting Uganda’s specific challenges, President Museveni recounted his struggles to secure foreign funding to integrate a significant portion of Ugandans into the formal economy. He lamented the conditions attached to available loans and highlighted Uganda’s self-reliance in funding initiatives like the Parish Development Model (PDM) to address economic disparities.
However, President Museveni also reiterated his message on the need for Africa to stop exporting its raw materials but instead add value at source in order to steer development.
