IMF to help build houses for teachers, medical workers

MUSEVENI: We need IMF support for economic growth

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will support Uganda’s education and health sector plan to build houses for teachers and medical workers.

The assurances were given by the visiting IMF Director Christine Lagarde in a meeting at State House Entebbe Friday with Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni.

At the meeting, Museveni stressed that Uganda’s infrastructure development and social sector needs support and thanked the International Monetary Fund for accepting to become an ally.

He expressed happiness that the NRM Government has supported the education sector through the building of several schools at both primary and secondary levels, but government needs support particularly in the construction of institutional houses for teachers and medical personnel.

He informed the IMF Managing Director that Uganda has not received sufficient support for infrastructure adding that there has been much concentration on macro- economic stability and control of inflation.

“We need to support the social sector in order to enable economic growth. The cost of transport and money needs to be addressed in order to promote the economy. If you add on the infrastructure, it will boost economic growth,”  Museveni said.

Lagarde agreed with Museveni that supporting Uganda in her efforts to develop the infrastructure is an important aspect of enhancing national development. She gave assurances that her organization is ready to support the housing proposal.

Lagarde also observed that the women of Uganda can contribute enormously towards economic development. She assured Museveni of the IMF’s commitment to continue supporting Uganda in strengthening the country’s national economy.

How can we help ensure that policies to boost growth lift all boats, benefiting all segments of society? My thoughts https://t.co/QnaMxr6c2t pic.twitter.com/MOPlajZOlG

— Christine Lagarde (@Lagarde) January 26, 2017

East African market

The president told Lagarde that there are 10 strategic bottlenecks that must be addressed at the same time including the development of the human resource and tackling the issue of small markets. He, however, assured the IMF Managing Director that the question of small markets is being addressed through regional economic blocks such as the East African Community.

President Museveni also informed  Lagarde that apart from the need to empower women through education, there is also the challenge of lifting up the 68% of Uganda’s population who are engaged in subsistence production leaving only 32% of the population engaged in the money economy.

Museveni told his visitor that the NRM Government has engaged the Army in the campaign to help wananchi be converted into ensuring food security and income generation at household level to fight against household poverty.  He observed that if the 68% of the Uganda population who are not in the money economy are supported, the national economic growth rate would increase from 8% to 13%.

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editor@independent.co.ug