JINJA – The Vice President, Jessica Alupo, has expressed her commitment to supporting the Busoga Development agenda and urged Basoga to remain focused on the development of the sub-region.
VP Alupo was speaking at the launch of the first annual work plan of Busoga consortium for development agenda at civil service college in Jinja on Friday.
She urged Busoga leaders to rally their people to embrace government development programmes as a way of fighting poverty.
“Busoga Consortium and Greater Masaka Consortium are two flagship programmes I inherited upon assumption of my duties. They are intended to provide frame works for the initiation of regional development plans and I believe they are good drivers to socio-economic transformation and I will support them absolutely,”Jessica Alupo said.
Alupo also commended the consortium leadership for their effort towards uniting Busoga, adding that President Yoweri Museveni is fully behind the initiative.
“The launch of this work plan should consequently lay down progressive policies that will put the Busoga consortium on a firm foundation leading to practical transformation of the region,” Alupo said.
In her communication, the 1st Deputy Prime Minister and Consortium patron, Rebecca Kadaga, decried what she called government low funding to Busoga development projects.
“The President pledged Shs5 billion to Busoga youth but only Shs4 billion was read in the budget,” Kadaga said.
She slammed the suggestion by a minister she did not disclose during the Horoes Day celebrations at Kololo that the additional Shs1 billion be channeled through the Parish Development Model (PDM).
“Other regions have special funds alongside the PDM and central budget so Busoga should not be any different,” Kadaga said.
She requested the vice-president to support her effort of ensuring that the funding does not pass through the PDM but rather given to Busoga sub-region.
“Busoga used to be vibrant and no one can refute that. Every parish in Busoga should receive this money in addition to the PDM the entire country is receiving,” Kadaga said.
The director general of Busoga consortium, Anthony Mula, urged consortium members to lay aside their differences and work toward developing the region.
“Let’s lay aside our differences and work towards developing Busoga. We should be a united force and ready to transform Busoga,” Mula said.
The 3rd Deputy Prime Minister, Lukia Isanga Nakadama, said the consortium had so far taken a step in the right direction.
“This is the first step towards the implementation of the Busoga development agenda,” Nakadama said.
She commended government for operationalising Busoga University and called upon the VP’s continued support towards the eradication of poverty in the region.
The Ambassador of China to Uganda, Zheng ZhuQiang, pledged China’s commitment to working closely with Busoga Consortium in the area of job creation and development of the sub- region.
The event was graced by Resident District Commissioners from Busoga sub- region, the RCC Jinja city, mayors, district leaders and former Lands minister Daudi Migereko, among others.
The idea consortiums is drawn from Article (1) of the Constitution of Uganda and the local Government Act Cap 243 section 8, which encourages local governments to cooperate and work together for common development interests.
The Busoga Consortium for Development, established in 2017, is a non-partisan development agency established by the sub-region’s local governments to rally the people and friends of Busoga residing in Uganda and in the Diaspora to steer Busoga’s transformation.
The Consortium programme was conceived by former vice president Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi after his election as 1st Board Chairman of the Forum on China Africa Local Government Cooperation held in Beijing in 2012.
