At the lakeside Speke Resort in Munyonyo, Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja told ministers, donors and local leaders, “Uganda’s main challenge is not the absence of growth.” She said, “It is the unevenness of it.”
The statement, delivered at the first Joint Regional Development Programme Annual Review Workshop, was part reflection, part rallying cry.
Nabbanja’s message was clear: Uganda’s development story will remain incomplete until the fruits of progress reach every region, from the bustling suburbs of Wakiso to the drought-hardened plains of Karamoja.
Over the past decade, Uganda has posted respectable growth figures. But beneath those numbers lie deep disparities, between the industrial south and the impoverished north, between urban expansion and rural stagnation.
Nabbanja acknowledged those inequalities bluntly.
“Regional disparities remain, particularly in Karamoja, northern Uganda, and parts of eastern Uganda,” she said.
“They are reflected in unequal access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities.”
The government, she added, had allocated 3.7 per cent of the national budget to regional development, part of a broader effort to make decentralisation more than just a policy slogan.
“We have devolved decision-making power and resources to local governments,” she said, “but more must be done to make that power meaningful.”
At the heart of Nabbanja’s remarks was the government’s flagship Parish Development Model (PDM), a programme designed to move households from subsistence to the money economy.
By June 2025, she noted, Shs 3.3 trillion had been transferred to more than 10,500 parish savings and credit groups, reaching 2.6 million beneficiaries. Another Shs 1.059 trillion has been earmarked for the current financial year.
“The PDM is changing lives,” she said. “It is boosting household incomes, enhancing food security, and creating jobs.”
The plan, she said, is to lift the remaining 33 per cent of Ugandan households still trapped in subsistence living, a goal anchored in the ruling party’s 2026–2031 manifesto and the forthcoming National Development Plan IV (NDP IV).
Under NDP IV, Uganda’s next development blueprint, the government is betting on four high-growth sectors, agro-industrialisation, tourism, minerals and oil, and science and innovation, to drive what Nabbanja called the “Tenfold Growth Strategy.”
“The goal is sustainable industrialisation for inclusive growth,” she said. “We must create jobs, add value to what we produce, and connect regions through roads, energy, water, and ICT.” But her speech also carried an undercurrent of realism.
“We cannot talk about industrialisation,” she warned, “without addressing the basics; roads that connect farmers to markets, schools that keep children learning, and hospitals that can serve every Ugandan with dignity.”
Nabbanja also spoke about equity. “Our goal is to ensure fair distribution of investments and infrastructure,” she said. “No region, no community, should feel left behind.”
She promised continued affirmative action for lagging regions and refugee-hosting communities, as well as salary enhancements for local government staff to improve service delivery.
And she called for stronger public-private partnerships, especially those promoting youth employment, women’s empowerment, and social protection for vulnerable groups. Local governments, she said, would be supported to develop “integrated regional development plans,” build administrative offices, and improve transparency.
“We must strengthen accountability in every parish and every district,” she urged. Amid the talk of growth and infrastructure, Nabbanja also turned to the environment, a concern that looms large over Uganda’s development ambitions.
“Climate resilience remains a pressing concern,” she said, citing drought-prone regions like Karamoja and eastern Uganda. “We must invest in adaptive technologies, water harvesting, and climate-smart infrastructure to safeguard livelihoods.”
For all its optimism, Nabbanja’s address hinted at the tightrope her government walks, balancing ambitious targets with fiscal constraints, and political promises with public expectations.
“We are committed to ensuring that the fruits of development reach every corner of Uganda,” she concluded. “So that no one is left behind.”
But the Nabanja of this country also!
If for 40 years and counting the regime can’t pay School Teachers a living wage, the country is highly indebted, 87% of the youths are languishing in unemployment and widespread poverty, even hundreds and thousands of qualified medical doctors have no hospitals to offer their services, etc.; what miracle is PM Nabanja going to perform in order ‘… to lift all regions into prosperity’?
In other words, honesty matters because; to tell a lie is to mislead.
Otherwise, by throwing her weight around and promising this or that; the PM or whoever makes such false statements and/or promises, can’t be leaders, but nonsensical con-artists not worth listening to by any right thinking citizen.
“We are committed to ensuring that the fruits of development reach every corner of Uganda,” she concluded. “So that no one is left behind.” Indeed such NRM political lies seem to impress the electorate and its majority parliament now many years and counting. One wonders how the World Bank and IMF together with all the other lenders are going to be able to collect their 40 or 50 percent debt portfolio from such a declared national budget of prosperity?
The Southern tribal states surely are fed up with trying to develop themselves as they pay highly in taxes to develop the Northern tribal states of Uganda! It seems its the politicians trick of nationalism to sing Karamoja and Acholi tribal states or any other Northern tribal state as backward for many years and counting. These dodgy African politicians greedy for state power, want such unfortunate economic situation to stay that way for 100 years or until Jesus comes back to earth!
Kabayekka, under the pretext of fighting the LRA rebels, for 21 years (1986-2005); Gen Tibuhaburwa kept our people in the IDP camps, where according to UNICEF and Ministry of Health, as many as 1,000 children were dying per week for the 21 years from communicable diseases (concealed depopulation through biological means/warfare).
And those children that survived deaths in the IDP camps, never went to school, hence are now illiterate adults. And many continue to suffer from the debilitating NODDING syndrome disease.
In other words, after being brought to their knees and through the Mao and Anita Among of that part of the country, the Greater North has become Tibuhaburwa’s Darling. And especially Darling after Buganda and Busoga through NUP surprise dumped the NRM.
And Kabayekka, through the liquidation (destruction) of the Cooperative Unions and/or Societies, Mr. M7 made sure he destroyed the Cotton and Cattle Cash Economy of Greater Northern Uganda (Acholi, Lango and Teso Sub-regions). Otherwise e.g., even more than Karamoja, Teso Sub-region used to have the largest herds of cattle (breeding) in Uganda.
This was purposely to make his Balalo kin take the dominant (monopoly) of the cattle cash economy industry (Beef and dairy cattle). Are you surprize that after the gun went silent in Greater Northern Uganda, the Balalo started to move north with their cattle?
In other words, except LIP-SERVICE, for donkey years now, there is no such a thing as CATTLE COMPENSATION for the people of Greater Northern Uganda.