The number of Ugandans striving for new opportunities to improve their lives has increased driven by a drop in poverty levels in rural areas according to a new report. That implicates that more Ugandans are becoming richer by the day.
Primary school children line up for trachoma medicine in Buniantole, eastern Uganda. Eastern Uganda is the poorest region according to the new report.
The poverty level in northern and eastern Uganda is still higher than the national average with more people getting poorer than in the last year.
When the 2012 Poverty Status Report produced by the Ministry of Finance stated that about one million Ugandans (6.6%) moved out of the absolute poverty bracket (living beyond $1.25 a day) between 2006 and 2010 as a result of the diversified economic activities, most pessimistic Ugandans took it for foolhardy but the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) 2012/13 released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) has Tuesday Nov. 19 come out to emphasize that poverty levels among Ugandans declined from 24.5 per cent in 2009/10 to 22.1 per cent in 2012/13
The survey is the fifth in a series of nationally representative consumption surveys conducted by Ubos. It provides estimates for the whole country, for urban and rural areas and for 10 sub-regions.
Average monthly income increased to Shs223, 000 in 2012/13, the survey shows, with majority of Ugandans, 42 per cent, deriving their income from agriculture.
However, the survey shows that the number of people living in absolute poverty increased by 0.36 million people in urban areas, while that in rural areas declined.
Despite the impressive jump in livelihood quality, the number of people still vulnerable and insecure with the possibility of sliding back to poverty has risen from 11% in the same period to 13.2%.
Many Ugandans have moved out of poverty but have not moved to middle class, the size of this insecure group has more than doubled since the early 1990s, read the report.
The research team has recommended that rural domestic granaries and commercial warehouses be deepened as a way of stabilizing prices.