Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni has denied that he ever said that the impoverished East African Community (EAC) nation he has led for close to four decades had already crossed to middle income status.
Last month, Museveni asked his finance minister Matia Kasaija why he was coy regarding pronouncing before the country and the whole world that Uganda had finally joined the league of middle income status nations. He assured the nation that Kampala had finally attained middle income status, thanks to efforts by his National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.
The statements by the president were in stark contrast to what the World Bank’s position: that Uganda was still a low-income country and that the effects of the Covid19 pandemic had slowed economic growth, dampening hopes of Kampala attaining the middle status soon.
But Museveni has now suggested that those reporting that he said Uganda had attained middle income status could have improperly heard him, thus misquoting him.
The president has told Indian news outlet WION that
“What is said was that the GDP Per Capita now at 1,046 dollars has just entered the middle income bracket: which is 1,036 or 1,039 dollars but in order to be declared officially — I said so in my [previous] speech — you need to maintain this or surpass it for three consecutive years,” Museveni told WION’s Eric Njoka.
“So, there is no contradiction, I didn’t say we have already become: I said we are entering.”
The u-turn by Museveni and his admission that Uganda was not yet a middle income country come a few days after he rubbished World Bank figures, insisting that Uganda was already middle income nation. (Read Story Here).
