The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance who is also the Secretary to the Treasury, Ramathan Ggoobi has confidently confirmed that the budget for the financial year 2023/2024 has been the best budget ever made for Ugandans.

“I can assure you this is a people’s budget, and it favors the common man more. This time, money has been sent to the parish through the Parish Development Model and I assure you, with serious monitoring, this money will help get people out of poverty,” Ggoobi said.

Ggoobi made the remarks on Thursday, June 15, 2023, during the reading of the National budget at Kololo Independence Grounds by the Minister of Finance Planning and Economic Development, Hon. Matia Kasaija.

“The first months of the implementation of the PDM have been challenging just like any other pilot project, but with this financial year, we have already established the challenges and we are going to address them all as we implement PDM,” Ggoobi added.

“A lot of money has been put into Emyooga program, skilling Ugandans and PDM and all this money is going direct to the beneficiaries and they will decide for themselves on what to invest in or what to add value to,” Ggoobi said.

Gerald Rwemulikya, the Ntoroko Member of Parliament also said that the people of Uganda should embrace the PDM if they are to get out of poverty.

“The PDM money is like a magic bullet that will propel Ugandans out of poverty. Also Ugandans should focus on value addition on all produce so that they can fetch higher prices for their products,” Rwemulikya said.

The 2023/2024 budget stands at over 52.7 trillion, with President Museveni insisting that the only way to increase gross domestic product is by moving from subsistence farming to commercial farming, where by farmers are able to have increased output, add value and sell the surplus.