BUSOGA REGION: Leaders from the Busoga sub region have challenged the vice president, Jessica Alupo, to spearhead efforts to rally cabinet members to endorse the increase of the sub region’s economic empowerment.
The leaders on Friday said they want an increase from the current approved 4 billion shillings to the earlier proposed budget of 7.5 billion shillings.
While attending the launch of Busoga’s 2022/2023 annual development plan at the Jinja city-based Civil Service college, the leaders said that an increase in funds will foster the quickening of poverty eradication processes.
The development plan aims at fostering the exploration of natural resources to benefit the region, modernization of agriculture and improvement in both the available health and education initiatives so as to uplift the general well-being of people within the Busoga subregion.
The first deputy premier, Rebecca Kadaga, says the earlier budget of 7.5 billion Shillings was an evolving fund meant to be shared amongst the 12 local governments within the region, where agreeable poverty eradication initiatives would be fully funded, but the current reductions will frustrate the smooth execution of these projects.
Kadaga stressed that, just like the other poverty-stricken sub regions in the country are boosted with affirmative funds, alongside the general government-led economic empowerment initiatives like youth livelihood funds and direct funding to their local governments, Busoga too ought to have the same access without suffering any budget cuts in that regard.
Steven Kiisa, the Luuka South MP, says that several projects, which had braced themselves to spearhead grassroots poverty eradication programs through the already established enterprise committees, will suffer a setback following the budget cuts throughout the planning processes.
Ronald Sanya, the Namayingo L.C.V chairperson, says that all local governments within the sub region had already finalized the processes of setting up investment committees, which were braced to acquire funds and rollout these development flagship programs. He said that with the current budget cuts, such projects will be derailed.
Meanwhile, the Kagoma North parliamentary representative, Brandon Kintu, who doubles as the National Resistance Movement-NRM parliamentary caucus spokesperson, says that he will lobby his colleagues to push for the approval of a supplementary budget aimed at addressing the current budget gaps within the sub region’s affirmative fund.
On her part, Alupo pledged commitment towards collaborating with leaders in the sub-regions in their effort to collectively work towards the economic transformation of grassroots communities.
