President Museveni has commended Brac Uganda Ltd, a Non-Governmental Organization, for helping local communities to access knowledge on education, healthcare and other services.
“The crucial thing is knowledge. If you are contributing knowledge, that is a good thing,” President Museveni said this afternoon as he met executives of BRAC at State House Entebbe.
The group led by the managing director, Mr. Jimmy Onesmus Adiga, had called on the President to brief him about the organisation’s activities in Uganda.
Whereas the BRAC has been in existence for 47 years on a global scale, it is 14 years old in Uganda and has supported rural and semi-urban dwellers, especially women and youth, with financial and non-financial services.
President Museveni said whereas Uganda is a very rich country, wealth creation has been hampered by a two-faced culture; those (the majority) working for the stomach only and those that work without a calculation (Ekibalo, Otita, Chuura etc).
He said, “The problem of Uganda is that the majority work but do not produce for money. Otherwise Uganda is a very rich country if it wasn’t this culture of its people.”
The President said the Government has since embarked on the efforts of waking up the population from sleep (okulambaala) and the results can be witnessed through the surpluses of products like milk, sugar, bananas, etc.
Mr Adiga said BRAC provides both social services to unlock social potential and financial services to unlock economic potential for the greater impact of the poor communities.
“We empower households to fight poverty, which philosophy aligns with wealth creation agenda of Uganda government but particularly the NRM party and National Development Plan,” Adiga said.
Mr Adiga said they work through government structures and different stakeholders including ministries and local governments to create social and financial safety of the targeted communities.
The targets for the communities include having sufficient and nutritious food, access to education, modern health care and access to convenient and affordable financial services.
“We thank you, your government and ministries for supporting and guiding our operations and enabling us to serve our country,” he said.
Brac Uganda Ltd employs over 2,700 workers and has enabled over 5,600 youth access quality secondary and university education through their scholarship programme in conjunction with MasterCard Foundation.
