By Alice Lubwama
Uganda's economy has grown by 6% per annum over the last two years according to finance minister Matia Kasaija.
While presenting the national budget 2019/2020 at Serena hotel Kampala this afternoon, Kasaija noted that with the progress in the economic growth average income of Ugandans has increased to USD 825 per person during the financial ending 3oth June 2019 compared to 800 dollars in the previous year not withstanding increase in population growth.
The quality of Ugandans labor force also improved with a proportion of labor force from tertiary institutions by 13.6 % from 7.5 % .
The annual growth in formal employment also increased higher than the average growth of the economy. Services increased to 48.7% from 32% , while exports in none traditional cash crops earned Uganda over 2.84 billion u.s dollars in the last financial year.
The composition of exports also changed positively with exports of light manufacturing products exceeding the traditional merchandise.
According to Kasaija as a result of opening up a number of new factories in the financial year ending 2019. a proportional of Ugandan products in supermarkets has increased from 15% to 45%.
The minister also outlined some development challenges the country is still facing including unemployment,income in quality and malnutrition and unhealthy life styles among others.
He said that 4 out 4 Ugandan youth were unemployed noting that even the quality of work was worrying.
Kasaija called for increased labour productivity in Agriculture and aggressive promotion of agro processing as a basis for Uganda's industrialization and further job creation.
The current survey according to kasaija shows that 50% of Ugandans were working in service sector, 35% in Agriculture sector while 14.4% in industry sector.