The NRM Deputy Secretary General, Rt. Hon Namayanja Rose Nsereko has implored women in Uganda to take up coffee growing to transform their lives and contribute to national development. Rt. Hon. Namayanja was on Thursday afternoon presiding over belated Women’s Day celebrations in Kole District where she launched coffee farming, distributing over 10,000 coffee seedlings to farmers.
Rt. Hon. Namayanja urged the women farmers to follow the NRM government’s guidance as it is best suited to transform the lives of every Ugandan. She said, the party chairman President Yoweri Museveni is preaching the message of diversifying household incomes. “The message of the National Chairman of NRM and the President of Uganda is to diversify our incomes by growing both seasonal and perennial crops. As a government we note that there is very good progress in diversifying household incomes and this contributes to our foreign exchange earnings as a country,” she told the gathering at Bala Primary School playground, Bala Sub-county in Kole District
Namayanja was accompanied by the Party's Women's league Chairperson, Hon Lydia Wanyoto.
“On behalf of the Government of Uganda, I take this opportunity to launch Coffee growing in Kole District. I call upon all members of the community to engage in Coffee growing to fight poverty and uplift their standards of living,” Namayanja stated.
President Museveni has on many occasions called on leaders in Uganda to support him in his efforts to stop the exporting of raw materials like coffee, cotton, maize, and milk. The President argues that Uganda is bound to Gain a lot more if the raw materials are processed and exported after adding value. Citing coffee, the President argues that currently, Uganda gets $2.5 from a kilo of coffee on the international market, yet when processed, the country will get $250 per kilo. According to Museveni, Uganda’s economy can leap from Shs50 billion to Shs500 billion and swing the country into the much coveted high middle-income economy.
Before presiding over the Women's Day celebrations, Namayanja accompanied by Hon Wanyoto and a team from the
Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) from the Lango sub-region visited the farm of Mr. Augustine Ayena, the Chairperson of the Bala Sub-county Coffee Growers Cooperative society.
Namayanja pledged that the government would ensure there are extension workers up to the parish level.
The Deputy SG urged women to look up to national female leaders for inspiration to become the best they can be.
“We have a Vice President, Speaker of Parliament, the Prime Minister, and all deputy Prime Ministers who are female. I urge all children in the country to look at us women in leadership and have the inspiration to be the best they can be in this country.
“Uganda was the first African country to have a woman representative per district in Parliament. We started with only 5% of women representatives in Parliament but today we now have 35% of the total members of Parliament being women,” she stated, adding: “We had only 2 female ministers before president Museveni came into power but today we have 42% of cabinet ministers being women. For the first time in the history of Uganda, we have the Vice President, the speaker of Parliament, and the Prime minister all being women.”
She also called on women in the country to join the fight against corruption and follow-up service delivery. “I also call upon all the women and leaders to be part of the struggle against corruption and follow up all government programs and most importantly to participate in the Parish Development Model (PDM) and all government programs to fight poverty and achieve household incomes since there is peace and political stability in the country,” she stated, adding that out of the 54 parishes in Kole District, 49 parishes have so far received funding under the PDM to the tune of Shs 31 million per parish. “That is over Shs1.5 billion in Kole District and women have 30% of the PDM funds. I urge women to make the best use of their share of the PDM funds.
Namayanja further urged the women to gear all their energies toward attaining equality now that the NRM government has ensured total peace across the country.
“We have attained and we are still attaining political equality. We are getting political stability and we are now fighting for economic stability where women and men are economically stable, through having stable household incomes.
While delivering her speech, the NRM women’s league chairperson Hon. Lydia Wanyoto thanked President Yoweri Museveni and the NRM government for recognizing the role of women in society. She rallied the people of Kole to massively continue supporting the NRM government for improved service delivery.
On her part, the Woman Member of Parliament Hon.Judith Alyek showered gratitude on President Museveni for his relentless efforts at improving the status of women in society.
“We thank His Excellency the President of Uganda for giving women a chance in this country. We thank the President for the affirmative action given to women. Like we have women in key government positions, for instance, the Vice president, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Prime minister among others are all women,” Hon Alyek stated adding that the NRM government has put in place many programs specifically to empower women.
The colorful ceremony was also graced by Kole south MP, Hon Peter Ocen among other district leaders.