A cross section of Ugandan citizens, analysts and members of the business community, have expressed mixed reactions to the 2019/2020 budget as read by Finance minister Matia Kasaijja at Kampala Serena hotel yesterday.
Uganda will spend shillings 40.4 Trillion in the next financial year.
Now, The Executive Director Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) Gideon Badagawa has praised the government for recapitalizing Uganda Development Bank and also need to formalize the economy. He also adds that there is need for institutional capacity building to formalize the economy among other things.
Meanwhile, businessmen, Paul Sine of PMTS Ltd and Harish Bhuptani, the chairman of Mama Care Foundation have lauded the government for prioritizing infrastructure and also commercializing agriculture in the national budget.
Harish is happy that the education, gender and health ministries have been tasked to devise measures to address malnutrition and stunting among children.
However, Sine is concerned that the budget is not fully financed through local revenues and thereby high chances of increasing public debt, beyond the 50 percent to GDP threshold.
A number of youth activists are also dissatisfied with the budget that has been read today. They say they were not consulted during the budget preparation process hence their needs were not addressed.
Racheal Navuga and Ali Kaviri; the Team leader at youth equality centre, say much as government has put in place development programmes like the youth livelihood programme, capital venture fund and green jobs , more needs to be done.
Some members of the public we managed to talk to here in the heart of Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso have expressed mixed reaction saying they see no ray of hope in the budget;
