Uganda’s Tenfold Strategy, Why You Need To Pay More Attention
Uganda is on a steady path towards growth. Through its planning arm, the National Planning Authority, the country is set to embark on an ambitious journey with its Tenfold Growth Strategy, a long-term plan to transform the nation into an upper-middle-income economy by 2040.
This strategy, aiming to grow the economy from approximately $50 billion to $500 billion, is not just about numbers; it’s a critical blueprint for lifting citizens out of poverty and ensuring sustainable development.
The importance of this strategy lies in its potential to address key national challenges and create a more prosperous future for all Ugandans.
The strategy, known as ATMS, is built on four core pillars designed to diversify the economy and unlock its full potential.
Agro-industrialization: This is the foundational pillar, focusing on shifting from subsistence farming to large-scale, commercial agriculture with a strong emphasis on value addition.
Instead of exporting raw agricultural products, the plan is to process them within Uganda, creating higher-value goods for both domestic consumption and export.
This will not only increase farmers’ incomes but also create jobs and stimulate industrial growth.
Tourism Development: Uganda’s natural beauty and rich cultural heritage are immense assets. The strategy aims to transform the tourism sector into a major revenue earner by significantly increasing tourist arrivals and per-tourist spending.
This involves improving infrastructure, enhancing marketing efforts, and promoting Uganda as a prime tourist destination.
Mineral Development (including Oil and Gas): With the discovery of commercially viable oil and gas reserves, this sector is poised to be a game-changer.
The strategy emphasizes mineral beneficiation, meaning minerals will be processed and refined in Uganda, rather than being exported as raw materials.
This approach will maximize economic returns and create a ripple effect of growth in other sectors.
Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI): This is the crucial accelerator. By investing heavily in emerging technologies, digital infrastructure, and a skilled workforce, the strategy aims to build a knowledge-based economy.
STI is seen as a key multiplier, enhancing productivity and competitiveness across all sectors, from agriculture to finance.
At the Centre for Media Innovation and Sustainability, CMIS Africa, we are keenly following up on how this ambitious program unfolds.
We are dedicating our space, skills and resources towards training the next generation of storytellers.
There is a huge gap when it comes to storytelling especially on new media platforms created through social media.
There is a glaring lack of depth in news reporting which underscores the intensity of programs like this.
We need to pay attention to researching the sectors that this strategy focuses on. We have a duty to investigate the stories and developments in these sectors. More writers need to dedicate a chunk of their writing to understanding how these sectors work.
Information dissemination remains one of the loopholes in Uganda’s media space. There is a mismatch between what the masses consume versus what they should be consuming.
We need to take news to where the masses are. This calls for packing it in formats that appeal to them.
Uganda has a young population which calls for packaging news in ways the young people want to. We need to create stories that cut across generations. And this is our commitment; to bridge this gap.
