Sustaining economic growth in Uganda


Uganda’s reputation and image for protecting its natural environment has been commendable compared to its East African counterparts. The government of Uganda has been paying much needed attention to the environmental organizations that have been critical to oil companies operating in Albertine region in Western Uganda. These organizations have been calling for better protection of the environment as Uganda strives for higher economic growth and development from oil revenues expected in the next three to four years. Unlike most African countries, Uganda has sufficient laws that protect and preserve the environment and wildlife. This is the reason as to why the country is not suffering elephant and rhino killings that has been reported in Kenya and Tanzania. In Uganda, thousands of hectares of indigenous forest have been designated as national parks and game reserves and are out of bound to businesses. The government pays greater attention to environmental protection and sustainable business practices. Luckily for the country, President Yoweri Museveni has been emphasizing that the government is committed to preserving the environment and establishing as well as implementing policies.
Developments that damage the environment are not a choice for Uganda and application of the law and firm stance by National Environment Management Authority not to issue business permits in areas that are deemed protected forest land and revoking illegally acquired wetland must be supported by all those who care about the country and future generations. In my opinion, to sustain the momentum of saving the environment and wildlife, I think Ministry of Education should include environmental and Wildlife protection topics in school curriculum especially in Primary level. Such a move would be a step in the right direction and on long term it would be a proactive approach. Uganda’s rainforests are millions of years old and contain plants and birds found nowhere else on Earth. In fact, 11% of world bird species and 54% of Africa’s bird species are exclusively found in Pearl of Africa. Uganda has been known as the Pearl of Africa after Winston Churchill traveled, hiked and biked, boated across Uganda from one end to the other. Churchill saw the country as a special country in his book - African Journal and fell in love with Uganda’s rich forests, River Nile, lakes and called it the “Pearl of Africa.” If Uganda strike the right balance between economic growth and preserving the environment, there is no reason why the country cannot be a role model for sustainable growth in East Africa and the continent.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2013: The year of mobile photography

Today is the 366th day of 2012 and as we wind up, millions of pictures will be taken and shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter by people across the world. Young and old alike will take more photographs than any new year celebration before and I bet big that traditional camera makers will miss out on a bigger share of the love. The latest research has found smartphone as one of the two popular devices used for taking pictures together with traditional cameras and is considered to be a bigger motivator for amateur photographers irrespective of the age and gender. Some studies have been quoted as saying that eight in every ten smartphone users take at least one picture a week on their phone, while less than half who use a point-and-shoot camera take pictures at the same frequency.This year, analysts believe that majority of people take pictures with a smartphone with less than a third taking pictures with a digital single lens reflex while a quarter of i...
Read more

Telecoms in East Africa should look to data for mobile growth

Mobile network operators in East Africa should look to data traffic growth and increased data prices as a means of arresting voice revenue decline in one of the fastest growing mobile market in sub Saharan Africa. Over the last few months, a couple of operators have been sending pricing signals to customers to help manage this finite resource. Unlike two years ago, there is a clear movement towards data usage among users in the four member states of East African community namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda where customers are using less mobile voice and SMS services. The loss of SMS service business is fatal to mobile operators and is highly attributed to the rise of over the top apps such as WhatsApp and iMessage that have become a hit with mobile subscribers in the region. Such apps have provided rich communications over a data connection, allowing customers to forgo SMS use. Customers have an economic incentive to use over the top apps...
Read more

Diabetes rising among Africa’s young adults

A group of software developers in Africa are developing mobile health apps among them application that will help monitor diabetic patients. Their interest in diabetes monitoring apps came after Doctors in Africa warned several years back that diabetes is on the rise among young people in the continent, attributable largely to sedentary urban lifestyles and increasingly high levels of obesity. An estimated 29 percent in urban areas and 14 percent in rural areas suffers from the disease, most of them young adults, while 36 percent are at high risk of getting it, according to a study conducted last year. That figure is up from estimates of 2.4 percent in 1989 and 0.6 percent in 1979. The study also showed that Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo and Dar Es Salaam had the highest prevalence of obesity in the continent, with 51 percent of the 1,000 men and women in the 22 -35 age range surveyed falling under that category. Doctors blame the high level of diabetes in the capital a...
Read more