By: Ismael Kasooha
KYANKWANZI
The Prime Minister Rt. Hon. Nabbanja Robinah has hailed President Yoweri Museveni for recapitalizing Uganda Development Bank (UDB) to facilitate socio-economic transformation.
“I thank H.E Gen Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for coming up with an idea to revamping Uganda Development Bank, Uganda Development Corporation, Uganda Housing Finance Bank, Post Bank (Pearl Bank) among others. The private sector needs money to support their businesses,” Nabbanja said.
The Premier said that the Government of Uganda has invested heavily in institutions that have a multiplier effect on the economy.
“I am pleased to note that UDB has so far disbursed UGX 2.45 trillion to 607 businesses engaged in commercial agriculture, agricultural value addition, manufacturing, tourism and hospitality, education, health services, creatives, and the construction industry. These investments have created 55,553 jobs, generated UGX 20 trillion in output value, contributed UGX 944.2 billion in taxes, earned UGX 3.3 trillion in foreign exchange, and generated UGX 3.15 trillion in profits,” noted Nabbanja.
She added that through institutions like UDB, the Government intends to create a strong class of Ugandan entrepreneurs to drive socio-economic transformation.
The Director NALI Col. Okei Rukogota taking the Premier on a guided tour of Kyankwanzi National Leadership Institute
Nabbanja made the remarks on Friday while presiding over the passing out of the first cohort of Uganda Development Bank (UDB) employees who have been undergoing a one-week transformative and leadership development ideological training at the National Leadership Institute (NALI) in Kyankwanzi.
Nabbanja explained that by recapitalizing UDB the NRM government is availing cheap and affordable money for the private sector to invest and create jobs for Ugandans.
She asserted that low interest rates for capital was a prerequisite to the country’s socio-economic transformation agenda.
“Therefore, the bone marrow of any economy is the cost of electricity, transport (Railway, Water) in addition to the cost of labour. When the cost of money, labour, electricity, transport is low, this automatically lowers the cost of doing business (Production) hence the profit margin is high,” said Nabbanja.
Nabbanja asked UDB to provide an avenue to support the private sector to enable the country achieve its vision. She said that the training of the Uganda Development Bank employees was necessary to ensure that they were ideologically oriented.
She also appealed to civil servants to love their country as they deliver services to the people.
Nabbanja said that the Government had allocated an additional UGX 1.0 trillion to UDB in the current financial year but noted that there was need to further expand the Bank’s loan portfolio and gave government’s commitment to strengthening its liquidity capacity to enable it fully deliver on its mandate.
The Managing Director, Uganda Development Bank, Dr. Patricia Adong Ojangole said that the training was purposely conducted to help the employees refocus on serving the people.
“The training has been very insightful and has awakened our consciousness and awareness about the world that we live in today and what we have to do to develop our country,” said Ojangole.
The Director National Leadership Institute (NALI) Col. Okei Rukogota thanked Uganda Development Bank for the initiative of training the employees to refocus on service delivery.
Sam Maitum, the participants’ representative testified that they had benefited greatly from the ideological training and was optimistic that work would be executed with a patriotic lens.
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