MUSEVENI: Uganda’s per capital income up

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is now equivalent to $800, President Yoweri Museveni stated in his State of the Nation Address this afternoon.

Uganda’s  Gross Domestic Product per capita was last recorded at $666.61 in 2017. It averaged 439.43 USD from 1982 until 2017, reaching an all-time high of $666.61 in 2017 and a record low of 272.70 USD in 1986.

President Museveni said he was delighted with the growth of the country’s Per capita Income, even though it is still below the rate required to attain the middle income status. He said Uganda is the only country in Africa which has registered highest economic growth without minerals and oil.

“No European country, not even the USA (except West Germany between 1950 and 1980 which did 3.8%) has grown its per capita income at the same rate as Uganda over a period of three decades,” he said.

“Only East Asian Tigers sustained per capita income growth of 5.6% during their intense period of transformation between 1960 and 1990.”

To put it in a global context, he stated that between 1986 and 2015, Uganda was the 17th fastest growing economy in the world, the 4th in Africa.

“If we remove mineral-rich countries from the sample (because they were enjoying God’s or nature’s bounty), Uganda was 11th in the world, 1st in Africa.”

He said that the Government is prioritizing the industrial parks which will result into creation of new jobs. The total of factories in Uganda is now 4900, from 80-factories that existed at the time the Uganda Manufacturers Association was created.

He added that the government will focus on modernizing agriculture with promotion of cash crops such as coffee, in the spirit of increasing foreign revenue.

“Uganda’s economic growth and development outlook is positive, with the economy projected to grow at, at least, 7 percent in the medium term, but could even be higher given that we have now sorted out the key constraints to growth.”

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