Over 8 Million Ugandans Are Living In Poverty

Posted by: Kyeyune Andrew Jonathan in Uganda news January 18, 2018

A new report from the Uganda Bureau of statistics reveals that over 8 million Ugandans are living in poverty as of the years 2016/2017.

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This is contained in the final results of the Uganda National Households Survey (UNHS) 2016/2017.

Addressing the media at the UBOS head office, the Executive Director UBOS Ben Mungyereza said across the country, the proportion of poor people has increased to 21.4% in 2016/2017 from the previous rates of 19.7% who were poor in 2012/2013.

UBOS attributes the increase in poverty to droughts.

“The increase in poverty is due to the increased prices experienced during the period under review brought about by the prolonged droughts that affected the entire agriculture sector in the country, which is the economic back bone for Uganda’s Economy,“ he explained during the launch of the report.

What are key findings in the UBOS report?

According to UBOS, poverty incidences remain higher in the rural areas; with the poor in the rural areas representing 31% of the population compared to 15% in the urban areas.

At regional levels, the UBOS reveals that poverty increased in all regions apart from Northern Uganda where the level of poverty has gone down.

“All regions except the Northern region experienced a rise in poverty, with the incidences of poverty being highest in Eastern region (35.7%) having increased from 24.5% in 2012/2013. The increases were highest in Bukedi region followed by Busoga, which outweighed the decline in Teso sub-region,” Mugyereza said.

In Northern region, the level of poverty declined from 43.7% in 2012/2013 to 32.5% in 2016/2017.

On literacy level, the literacy rate for person aged 10 years and above is estimated at 74% and was higher for males than females.

Overall, five percent of the school-going-age children had never attended school while in Karamoja about half had never attended school.

On access to employment, the report reveals that the labour force stood at 10 million and this was an increase from 8.8 million in 2012/2013.

The national unemployment rate was 9% and nationally 38% persons in employment were in paid employment with higher proportion being males.

The report shows that the overall median monthly wage of an employee was Shs168,000 per month; with the median wages in the urban areas at Shs220,000 — almost twice that in the rural areas which is Shs120,000.

Source: chimpreports

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