The minister of state in charge of Northern Uganda, Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny has, attributed negative mindset and reliance on tradition as some of the factors perpetuating poverty in the greater Northern Uganda.
The minister said traditional farming methods with rudimentary tools for subsistence purposes and lack of agro-processing and minimal value addition on primary commodities to afford higher income earnings are other factors that have made the region to remain in poverty.
According to the minister, Acholi sub region still leads with high poverty indices with 67.7%, followed by Karamoja with 65.7%, Bukedi has 34%, Lango has 22.4%, West Nile has 16.9% and others.
"Limited financial services and low access to investment capital and low innovations like adoption of new crops, post-harvest handling practices, amongst others have attributed to high poverty level in this region,”she said.
She said cabinet authorised the Office of the Prime Minister to commence the design and preparation of a successor NUSAF IV in Acholi, Lango, West Nile, Teso, Karamoja, Elgon, Bukedi, Bunyoro sub regions and to expand the intervention to Busoga sub region,”she noted.
She said the government will design and prepare a successor social action fund intervention to consolidate the gains the country has made through multiple interventions addressing poverty and socio economic disparities in the greater Northern Uganda.
"The government is committed to scale up the inclusion and equalisation opportunities in the country's development agenda and specific sub-region consultations will be conducted to collect data for effective design making but above all, get real issues specific to the sub regions," said Kwiyucwiny.
