As Uganda gears up to celebrate her Independence Day on October 9, 2024, Uganda’s economy has tremendously grown 37 times in size compared to that of 1986, when the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government under the leadership of President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni came into power.
Besides the rapid growth, Uganda’s economy has undergone political instability, civil war, and fluctuating global commodity prices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, with the coming of President Museveni after five years of civil war, he found the economy in deep recession. With International Monetary Fund (IMF) support, the NRM undertook major economic reforms aimed at encouraging private sector growth and diversifying Uganda’s agricultural exports, notably coffee, which had left the economy vulnerable to fluctuations.
The NRM government, upon taking over power, established a four-year plan to stabilize the economy and promote economic growth. More specific goals were to reduce Uganda’s dependence on external assistance, diversify agricultural exports, and encourage the growth of the private sector through new credit policies.
According to the 1992 report by the Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, in 1987, the GDP rose to 4.5 percent, which marked Uganda’s first sign of economic growth in four years, as security improved and factories increased production after years of stagnation. More so, the economy’s growth increased in 1988, when GDP expansion measured 7.2 percent, with substantial improvements in the manufacturing sector.
Uganda’s economic development can also be evidently explained in terms of sectors that entail economic development, health, water and sanitation, growth and development, international and regional cooperation, education, oil and gas, and transport.
The NRM government increased economic development by creating investment incentives like providing free land, improving water, power connectivity, and tax holidays, among others, in order to attract both well-meaning domestic and foreign investors with the aim of boosting trade. Industrial and business parks in various regions have been gazetted, for example, Namanve, Luzira, Bwoyogerere, Jinja, Soroti, and Mbarara, hence revenue collection growing to over UGX 70 trillion from 5 billion in 1986.
In addition, the introduction of the Parish Development Model (PDM) is to increase household incomes and improve the quality of life of Ugandans, with a specific focus on the total economic transformation of the households through getting Ugandans out of the subsistence economy into the money economy in order to ensure socio-economic transformation.
Additionally, Uganda’s GDP is set to skyrocket mainly because of the oil exports, as drilling is expected to commence by the end of 2025.
Uganda’s economy is one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies, and this growth is a clear indication showing the existence of business opportunities arising from a favorable economic climate that is conducive to such development.
