One fact to be remembered about Mr. Ngoma Ngime when he served as RDC in Mbarara, was the learning and familiarisation tours he organized regularly for district leaders. At the end of one such tour, during a cock tail at the Uganda High Commissioner’s residence in Nairobi, he lamented why Ugandan farmers cannot adopt the modern farming practices the team had seen in Kitale, Eldoret, and other places.

And he touched the right button when he emphasized the role of local government leadership in spearheading the adoption of such commercial farming. This died with his tenure of office. The current
crop of local government leaders may have a leaf to pick from him, beyond threats of jailing the youth.
In their latest meeting, the umbrella body of the local governments in Uganda, the Uganda Local Governments Association (ULGA), https://ulga.org/, https://molg.go.ug/ulga/ resolved to pass bye-laws to compel the youth to work, or else they face jail.

In the same breath, they resolved to enforce food security at the family level, by legislating for each family to have a garden commensurate with its size. Good resolutions, but they end on paper. Just like our national
leaders, local government leaders are joining the general fad and fashion of ‘ceremonial’ talk, with nothing tangible coming out of those resolutions and ‘call-upons’. Yet the local governments have all that it
takes to eliminate poverty, hunger, unemployment and all

The primary faux pas of our decentralization was the focus on the political aspect of the system, which has overshadowed the other functions, powers, and responsibilities of local governments. The sixth pillar of
decentralization is local economic development, which the local leaders have refused to prioritize. Under the
Local Governments Act, local governments are bodies corporate, empowered to enter into contracts
with other entities, which contracts would include joint ventures and partnerships in economic investment.

ULGA can be the catalyst for local governments to evolve into Regional Growth Poles. The Directorates of Planning can play the role of Investment Authorities, to elaborate industrialization strategies at the regional level.

The Agricultural Zoning Plan 2005 has accumulated dust enough to grow acres of sorghum, in Uganda which prides itself to be an agricultural country! Where is the problem? One often cited excuse is a low local revenue base. But is it true that local governments have a low local revenue base? Even without belaboring the politicized graduated tax, there are enough sources of local government revenue, if properly administered.

While conducting a study on the funding of Agriculture in local governments a few months back, we came across a very instructive revelation: in one district in eastern the region, one Grade A weekly market had been tendered out at Ushs 1 million per month. On one market day, the Chief Finance Officer decided to find out the actual collections from this market. With a team of four staff, she manned one entrance to the market and collected Ushs 1.5 million, in only three hours at a single entrance. This was more than what the tenderer paid the district from 4 market days of 12 hours each. One matooke-producing district is estimated to churn out at least 40,000 bunches daily to Kampala. Levying an Industrial Development Tax of Ushs 200 on each bunch will yield Ushs 2.88 billion a year.

Cottage industries to employ the youth and ensure household income and minimize the ratio of food sold cost less than this amount to establish. Food security cannot be ensured when a farmer needs to sell
matooke for 60 months to pay a single semester fee for one student at the university.

Back to the drawing board, our dear leaders!

Read more from Ben Kahunga Matsiko

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