UBOS insists Uganda has attained middle income status  

The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) has insisted that Uganda has already reached middle income status, contesting a World Bank report rejecting this assertion.

Addressing journalists in Kampala on Wednesday, July 6, 202, UBOS Executive Director Dr Chris Mukiza said World Bank based on old data to make their conclusions.

He explained that World Bank based on data from the financial year 2020/21 while government referred to data for the financial year 2021/22.

“The estimates for GNI per capita which is the GDP adjusted for net primary income released by the World Bank are consistent with the government of Uganda estimates but the reference period in the two reports is different,” Dr Mukiza said.

“Thus, the per capita income in the two reports refers to two different periods, the government of Uganda report being the most up to date,” he added.

The UBOS director further explained that the World Bank used the UN population projections for Uganda, which indicated that the Gross National Income per capita mid-year projection for financial  year  2020/21 Uganda is 47.1 million, something he said is far above the official estimates for government.

“The Uganda government official population projection for the same period is 42.4 million resulting in a difference of 4.7 million people. What is more striking is that the World Bank is giving Uganda more people than it has. The 47.1 million they say we have are 4.7 million people bigger than those in Kampala during day time and they are dividing incomes of non-existent people,” he added.

“The estimates for GNI per capita which is the GDP adjusted for net primary income released by the World Bank are consistent with the government of Uganda estimates but the reference period in the two reports is different. Thus, the per capita income in the two reports refers to two different periods, the government of Uganda report being the most up to date,

CHRIS MUKIZA, UBOS ED

Dr Mukiza also said that governments world over are the official sources of data used in computation of the economic status of countries.

“The only agency responsible for official statistics is this office. It is not World Bank, United Nations or IMF. There is no other source of official statistics than UBOS. Anybody can produce numbers but the official source is here. The GDP per capital for Uganda at the end of June is $1064. The GNI statistics are not statistically significant. It is up to you to make inference,” he said.

A few weeks ago, President Museveni and the Finance Minister Matia Kasaija said that with a GDP per capita of $1046, the country has already reached the middle income status.

But the World Bank last week put the per capita income of Uganda at 850 dollars for the financial year end 2022, with the economy growing at an estimated 3.7 percent.

According to the Bank, this average income by a Ugandan is far below the lower-middle-income threshold of 1,045 dollars that was stated by President Yoweri Museveni in his state of the Nation Address on June 7.