H.E YK Museveni, the President of Uganda yesterday Wednesday January 11th 2023, tipped Ugandans with a formula for creating lasting family wealth and eradicating poverty in the population.
In a formal written statement, Museveni highlighted three key areas that need to be addressed by the population to eradicate poverty and create lasting wealth within the different families countrywide. These include;
The carrying capacity of land
The President advised both cattle keepers and cultivators to first assess the carrying capacity per acre per annum of the land before starting any form of farming. According to him, this helps to increase the quality and quantity of Agricultural produce.
He gave an example of a cattle keeper owning 10 Frisian cows on 30 acres of land and producing about 60 litres per day, selling each litre at UGX 1000 and earning about 18Ugx Million per annum.
“The one of 30 acres, keeping 10 Frisian cows on a free-range basis, will have 3 cows milking at any time with each giving 20 litres and this means 60 litres per day. The home consumes 10 and sells 50 at Shs.1000 per litre. That means Shs.50000 per day and it means Shs.18 million per year. This farmer will be able to take children to school, build a decent home and own transport means,” he stated.
Development vs. Wealth
Museveni highlighted the relationship between Development and wealth and how the two doctrines help in the eradication of poverty.
He said the actual medicine against poverty is wealth and not development since the latter is a base from which each family must solve their problem of poverty.
“A good tarmac road will enable us to sell our products easily to the market and we solve our poverty problems hence wealth creation,” he said.
Destructive inheritance practices
Museveni condemned the practice of fragmenting family wealth, especially land on inheritance. He said that over-fragmented land becomes land with disability with reduced productivity.
Instead of fragmenting land, Museveni advocated for inheritance by shares where the beneficiaries don’t divide the property itself but rather divide what comes from the property in form of shares.
“The family property is not only preserved, but it can be expanded and even shareholders can get their own separate properties from the income generated….” he stated.
He appealed to all stakeholders including political and local leaders, religious and cultural leaders to ensure that people are educated on poverty eradication programmes.
