President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has urged residents of peri-urban areas to embrace farming and small enterprises as the surest path to household wealth, saying infrastructure development alone cannot lift families out of poverty without deliberate income generation.
Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party flagbearer made the remarks on Tuesday while campaigning at the Kawanda Research Centre grounds in Nansana Municipality, Wakiso District, where he addressed supporters alongside the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni.
Drawing from Uganda’s past, the President recalled that even when key roads such as the Kampala–Gulu highway were already tarmacked during the bush war years, many families along the route still lived in grass-thatched or mud-walled houses.
“Development existed, but household wealth did not,” Museveni said, explaining why NRM places strong emphasis on income, wealth and jobs.
He said the government’s top priority is commercial agriculture done correctly, stressing that enterprise choice and land use must match available resources.
“Small land needs intensive production, while large land suits extensive farming,” Museveni said.
The President said Wakiso District, particularly Nansana, is well positioned to benefit from peri-urban farming and non-farm enterprises that thrive near towns.
“In peri-urban areas, people can do poultry, piggery to some extent, mushroom growing, and even fish farming in some places,” he said, noting that such activities require limited space and capital.
Museveni explained that wealth and jobs are mainly generated from four sectors: commercial agriculture, manufacturing and artisanship, services, and information and communications technology (ICT). He added that Wakiso also benefits significantly from workshops, artisans and industries that absorb urban and peri-urban labour.
He reminded supporters that as early as 1996, the NRM identified seven priority activities for small-scale farmers, including coffee, fruits, pasture, food crops, fish farming, piggery and poultry.
According to the President, those who adopted these enterprises have steadily improved their livelihoods.
Museveni also cited government programmes such as Entandikwa, NAADS, Operation Wealth Creation, Emyooga, the Youth Fund and the Women Fund as key interventions aimed at boosting household incomes, acknowledging that while not everyone benefited, overall production has increased.
He pointed to the rise in coffee output from three million to nine million 60-kilogram bags and growth in the national cattle herd from three million to 16 million as indicators of progress.
The President said government plans to inject more funding into wealth creation initiatives, with 30 percent earmarked for youth and another 30 percent for women.
Museveni further encouraged Ugandans to tap into ICT opportunities, noting that technology now allows people to work for international companies while based in Uganda.
He thanked Nansana residents who stood in the rain to listen to his message and urged voters to support the NRM in the upcoming elections, saying the party has the experience to address Uganda’s remaining economic challenges.
Maama Janet Museveni called on Ugandans to remember the country’s past and protect the peace that has enabled development.
She urged voters to turn out in large numbers and vote for NRM candidates at all levels.
NRM First National Vice Chairperson AlHajji Moses Kigongo appealed for discipline among party leaders and called for a massive voter turnout on January 15.
