President Museveni urged Ugandans to support government development programs like as Emyooga and others in order to escape poverty.

President Museveni delivered the words on September 30, 2022, when speaking to the country on the Ebola outbreak and other national challenges.

President Museveni stated that his administration’s objective is to lift all Ugandans out of poverty. He urged people to engage in commercial agriculture, industry, services, and ICT since these provide prospects for growth.

President Museveni was thrilled by the Emyooga initiative, adding that many Ugandans have enrolled in it and are now involved in income-generating activities that generate wealth.

Emyooga is a presidential program launched in 2019 as part of a larger government goal to transition 68 percent of Ugandans from subsistence to market-oriented production while creating wealth and jobs for themselves.

According to President Museveni, around 4 million Ugandans have enrolled in the Emyooga program, with some engaging in non-agricultural activities such as tailoring, carpentry, metal fabrication, and mechanics.

“Now they were telling me that Emyooga had saved Shs 72 billion, with each Sacco at the constituency receiving Shs 30 million and each constituency receiving more than 500 million,” he said, “but I want to thank the mobilizers because they did a good job.”

Market vendors, welders, boda bodas, restaurant proprietors, taxi drivers, carpenters, and artists are among the groups targeted by the Emyooga initiative. Emyooga SACCOs supply the assistance.

Ugandans, according to Museveni, should use funds granted by Emyooga, the Parish Development Model [PDM], and the Uganda Development Bank [UDB] to develop themselves.

He claims that UDB provides a soft loan of roughly 12% to small Ugandan enterprises.

He stated that the government, through the PDM, is committed to give Shs 100 million to each parish in Uganda so that organized groups can borrow and prosper.

“We have given them Shs 100 million per parish, and next year we will add another Shs 100 million,” he stated. He stated that in four years, each parish will receive Shs 400 million.

Museveni went on to say that the parish development model program would support NAADs and Operation Wealth Creation [OWC] in terms of acquiring and distributing inputs and seedlings to farmers.

The government intends to use the PDM to transition 3.5 million households from subsistence farming to the money economy.

Meanwhile, according to Haruna Kasolo Kyeyune, Minister of State for Microfinance and Small Enterprises, 4,114,200 people have joined SACCOs and savings groups.

According to the minister, several of the Emyooga parish SACCOs that received the Shs 30 million revolving seed money have increased it to Shs 300-400 million. He claims that those who have reached this milestone no longer seek credit from moneylenders.

Haruna Kasolo Kyeyune Minister of State Microfinance and Small Enterprises stated that the Microfinance Support Centre [MSC] would like to become a People’s Microfinance Development Bank, with each Emyooga SACCO purchasing shares in the institution.

MSC is currently responsible for the planning, management, budgeting, reporting, and responsibility of all funds issued for the Emyooga program, as well as the distribution of funding to Emyooga SACCO organizations.