The First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda and Minister for East African Community Affairs, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, has requested Uganda Development Bank (UDB) to support the people in Busoga sub-region with capital so that they can add value to low-hanging fruits, tourism and mining activities among others.

“There is a need to support people, especially farmers in Busoga to add value to low-hanging fruits to enhance transformation. Once people embrace value addition, they will penetrate international markets,” Kadaga, the former powerful Speaker of Parliament, said.

She was making a presentation titled ‘The Busoga we want’ during the Busoga sub-region Investment Forum organized by the Uganda Development Bank in conjunction with Busoga Kingdom, at the Civil Service College of Uganda in Jinja City.

The Forum was organised under the theme “Breaking the Barriers-Exploring Investment Opportunities in Busoga sub-region.”

“We want to develop the value chain in sugarcane; it’s not just about sugar, all that waste is a resource for our development. We want to produce sugarcane juice, toilet paper, syrup for medicine, paper and mats,” Kadaga said.

She added that if they develop that value chain, they will create employment for many people including those who are not very skilled and on this note requested support from UDB.

Kadaga revealed that they can also support people to add value to pineapple leaves.

“In Busoga sub-region we grow a lot of pineapples but there is no factory to process these pineapples but in addition to processing the pineapple, we can develop the pina cloth.”

“In Philippines, the clothes which President Macos, and all the Philippines use on formal occasions are clothes made from pineapple leaves which we do not have to pay for in our Country,” Kadaga said.

Kadaga further requested UDB’s Ojangole to support Busoga in developing all tourist sites by availing people with capital to construct accommodation facilities or to construct modern clean houses which they will be hiring out to tourists.