President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has renewed calls for African countries to move away from exporting raw materials, warning that the continent will remain economically vulnerable unless it prioritises industrialisation, manufacturing, and value addition.
Speaking during his inauguration ceremony at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds, Museveni laid out what observers described as a production-centered economic vision for his new term, focusing on transforming Uganda from a largely consumer-driven economy into a manufacturing and value-addition hub.
The Ugandan leader argued that long-term prosperity cannot be achieved through the continued export of unprocessed agricultural products and minerals while importing finished goods at higher costs.
“If the gold is processed to 99.9 percent purity, you get US dollars 168,000. If you export unprocessed gold, you get only around US dollars 60,000,” Museveni said.
He described the export of raw materials as a “strategic blunder” that continues to limit industrial growth, job creation, and purchasing power across African economies.
Museveni identified commercial agriculture, manufacturing, ICT, and services as the sectors that will drive Uganda’s next phase of economic transformation, while emphasizing the need for technical and market-oriented education reforms.
“This is where we need to retune our educational system to concentrate on imparting skills to learners that are needed in the labour market,” he said.
The President used Uganda’s locally assembled electric buses under Kiira Motors Corporation as an example of what he called Africa’s untapped industrial potential.
“Those are buses now produced by your own people from zero, totally designed and produced. There is a cry about petrol in the world. For us, we shall go electric if the petrol disappears,” he stated.
While highlighting the NRM government’s investments in roads, electricity, schools, and healthcare over the last four decades, Museveni stressed that infrastructure alone cannot eliminate poverty unless households actively participate in wealth generation.
“The challenge of the NRM is that there is peace, there is infrastructure, there are services in schools and health centres. But you must be engaged in wealth creation as an individual, as a family or a company,” he said.
He credited initiatives such as Operation Wealth Creation and the Parish Development Model for expanding participation in the money economy, saying the proportion of Ugandan households engaged in income-generating activity had significantly increased over the years.
He further revealed that Uganda is investing in strategic sectors including vaccines, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and automobile manufacturing as part of a long-term plan to shift more citizens from subsistence agriculture into higher productivity sectors.
The address formed a key economic pillar of Museveni’s inauguration speech delivered before regional leaders, diplomats, foreign delegations, and thousands of supporters gathered in Kampala for the commencement of his new 2026–2031 presidential term.
