Man of good ideas, poor implementation
In May 2004, President Musevceni addressed the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (ADB) in Kampala, Uganda. The main features of the address were captured in Omar Ben Yedder’s report which was published in African Business of July 2004. Museveni observed that while Africa had succeeded in decolonization of the continent it had failed to industrialize. To industrialize, Africa needed machines and intellectual power, stressing that Africa will succeed through an intellectual revolution. By selling raw commodities rather than finished products, Africa was receiving only 10 percent of the final price. More than four decades since independence, Africa had failed to transit from third to first world class.
President Museveni attributed Africa’s problems to endogenous and exogenous (external interference) factors. He noted that frustrating private enterprise in Africa had been a major contributor to the continent’s backwardness. The second factor was excessive government intervention like the creation of state monopolies, fixing of exchange rates and imposition of complicated immigration and licensing procedures. Inflation had risen due to uncontrolled spending. Failure to develop human resources had been caused by insufficient or ineffective education and health programs. Because Africa is not economically viable, it had become dependent on foreign aid.