Pushing landowners out of markets is one of President Museveni’s “pro-poor” policies.

This week, President Museveni put an end to the insatiable appetite of the rich who oppress and exploit the poor in the 21 public markets created by the government, pushing them out and returning property to the real owners, the sellers.

This is how transgression begins. When the government builds a public market, some greedy and shrewd businessmen use their financial power to rent a few stalls and then rent them out to disadvantaged vendors at a profit, which increases the rental costs and thus makes the business less competitive.

The good news this week is that Museven, through his Minister for Local Government, Hon Raphael Magezi, has indefinitely ended the tenure of landlords owning multiple stalls at the expense of needy vendors, some of whom choose to work on the streets due to on exorbitant fees, resulting in the death of wealth creation and jobs.

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni issued a directive on government management of markets during a meeting at State House Entebbe on November 16, 2022, making it one of the president’s most famous pro-poor policies that will go down in history as a major breakthrough in the economic liberation of poor people.

According to Magyezi, vendors will pay revenues approved by their respective local governments, which will cover market utility costs, increase safety and improve sanitation.

Pro-poor is about helping the poor by reducing income inequality while promoting economic inclusion, which is reflected in this intervention.

Pro-poor policies can also be defined as policies that aim to improve the wealth and opportunities of poor people.

Similarly, in 1964, in his first State of the Union address, US President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Congress to declare an “unconditional war on poverty” with the goal not only of alleviating the symptoms of poverty but also of treating it and, above all, everything to prevent this. This appears to be the same way General Yoweri Museveni is trying to fight poverty by empowering the disadvantaged.

The president’s interventions on behalf of the poor can also manifest themselves in his Office of the National Chairman (ONC), run by his manager and AP Hajjat ​​Hadijah Namyalo, where thousands of young people and women’s groups, mostly from ghettos across the country, have benefited from the empowerment tool.

Through ONC, the president dedicated and financed the underprivileged Bazzukulu with wealth creation tools across the country. Beneficiaries receive, among others, saws, welding machines, grinders, salon equipment, chicks and feed, goats, seeds and hoes.

In the same way, over 21 Industrial Skills Centers spread across the country, including Girl Child Education, Parish Development Model, Emyooga and Operation Wealth Creation, are some of the other projects that aim to uplift farms that are still stuck in the substance economy in nature, in the monetary economy. The four-acre model also aims to move 39 percent of the poor into a market economy.

In conclusion, we thank the Fountain of Honor for dedicating its resources within its jurisdiction to help the poor across the country, courtesy of ONC. We pray that God will reward you abundantly, because the Bible says that whoever oppresses a poor man offends his Creator, but whoever is generous to a needy honors him.

Ben Sssebuguzi, Head of the Research Office of the National President
(email protected)