By Bernard Baguma
On Feb 9, Kisamba Mugerwa, the Board Chairperson of the National Planning Authority (NPA) confidently said in the next five years, Uganda will have attained a middle income status. He was addressing the press on the progress of the second phase of the National Development Plan (NDP) which is going to run from 2015 to 2020.
According to the planning body, by 2020 when the second phase of the National Development Plan comes to an end, Uganda’s per capita income is expected to be in the range of US$1,033 (about UShs3m) per year.
World Bank ranks middle income countries as those whose per capita income (annual earnings per person) averages between US$1,036 (about UShs3m) and US$12,615 (about UShs35m). This means Uganda is vying for the lower rung of middle income status.
During this period (2015-2020), NPA says that Uganda needs at least UShs120 trillion to fund the entire budget, of which 43% is to be contributed by the private sector if Uganda is to transform into a middle income country come 2020.
“We hope by 2020 we would have achieved the lower segment of a middle income country,
