By Gloria Gwitabinji
Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has set out his agenda for the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, placing budget discipline, revenue mobilisation and Uganda’s tenfold growth strategy at the centre of his tenure.
Musasizi outlined the priorities while chairing his first top management meeting at the ministry.
He said his focus will be to move Uganda from incremental growth to what he described as “exponential economic take-off.”
The minister said the ministry will work towards the government’s target of growing Uganda into a 500-billion-dollar economy through the tenfold growth strategy.
“We shall relentlessly execute the tenfold growth strategy to turn Uganda into a 500 billion-dollar economy,” Musasizi said.
He also said the ministry must shift its culture from spending money to enforcing results.
According to Musasizi, this will require strict budget discipline, procurement reforms and value-for-money audits on public projects.
“We shall shift the Ministry culture from spending money to enforcing results,” he said.
On revenue, Musasizi said the government will implement the second Domestic Revenue Mobilisation Strategy, with the aim of raising Uganda’s revenue-to-GDP ratio to at least 20 percent.
He said this is intended to reduce external dependency and strengthen domestic financing of government priorities.
Musasizi also said the ministry will give priority to the Presidential wealth creation agenda, especially funding and tracking programmes aimed at commercialising smallholder farmers and bringing more Ugandans into the money economy.
On oil, the minister said Uganda must manage expected oil revenues carefully and avoid becoming dependent on oil income.
“We shall manage our impending oil revenues with bulletproof institutional guardrails,” Musasizi said.
He said oil revenues will be directed towards infrastructure development, with the aim of making Uganda an oil-producing country but not an oil-dependent economy.
Musasizi takes charge of the finance docket at a time when government is pushing for faster growth, higher domestic revenue collections and tighter controls on public spending.
