President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Thursday, December 5th, 2024, told the people of Karamoja to use Parish Development Model money to create wealth, noting that they now have no excuse for remaining poor.
While addressing a public rally at Kotido Boma Grounds during the last day of his week-long wealth creation mobilization tour of the region, Museveni said, “You have no excuse for making friendship with poverty, and we don’t want poverty; we need wealth.”
Museveni, who has been assessing the implementation of PDM and other wealth creation programs in Karamoja, said with the prevailing peace now, the local people should actively engage in both crops and livestock farming.
“Therefore this PDM is to get all of you out of Poverty. That’s why we send shs100 million per parish every year. If you get the one million, you can buy pigs, goats, even a young cow. In Kapyelebyong district, I saw many people who have bought young heifers at 800k.
According to President Museveni, the PDM program will be maintained for many years until Ugandans have all joined the money economy.
He rallied Karamojong residents to seek homestead wealth through agriculture, which is largely being supported by the government.
“With the success of the Parish Development Model (PDM), the establishment of skilling hubs, and ongoing industrialization, you have now got peace, boreholes, and start with those at least for the goats, pigs, and a few cows, but we are going to work on bigger dams,” the president said.
Regarding the construction of tarmac roads in the region, the president said that for now, the government has prioritized a wealth creation program to alleviate people from poverty.
“Prioritizing does not mean that what I started with is more important than what is coming; we shall work on all the infrastructures. The money we are putting in PDM would have finished all the roads, more than Shs1 trillion every year. That’s a lot of money,” Museveni explained.
The president added that the government will in the near future build many dams in the Karamoja region to support large agricultural activities.
“The only problem for Karamoja I have seen is water for big herds, which we are going to handle, but we have got many boreholes, and for five months of the year, there is rain, and even when the river has dried, you can dig your well near a river. The water is enough to feed cows and even do irrigation.
President Museveni started the Karamoja wealth creation tour on Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024, from Abim, Amudat, and Nakapiripirit districts.
In Nakapiripirit district, the president visited the piggery project of a former warrior identified as Emma Losike Lokong, who benefited from the PDM program. Lokong, who has a total of 34 pigs, thanked President Museveni for introducing PDM programs, saying it’s the reason he can afford a living.
