Services:
At 8.4 % growth in the F/Y 2010/11, services were one of the fastest growing sectors in the country. The posts and
telecommunications sub-sector had the highest growth at 23.6% in 2010/11 although with a slight decline in 2011/12.
The Transport and communication sub-sector had a growth rate of about 14.1%. On the whole however, the service
sector alone had a 46.2% contribution to total GDP at current prices in 2010/11 and 45.1% in 2011/12.
Balance of Trade:
For the calendar year 2010, the external trade balance registered a deficit of about US $ 2.6 billion due to export
earnings of about US $ 2.1 billion against imports of about US $ 4.7 billion.
At 59% share in 2010, COMESA remained the major destination of Uganda’s exports compared to the European Union’s
17%. The Sudan and now South Sudan was the main export destination among COMESA Member States.
Inflation:
The fiscal year 2010/2011 ended with raising inflation which for the very first time in more than 20 years hit double
digits. This was fueled primarily by instability in global markets which significantly affected Uganda’s exports and
therefore its foreign exchange inflows.
The situation was compounded by domestic issues such as delayed rains and an ever increasing regional market for
food crops. This increased demand for food crops in the region created some food shortages on the local market which
resulted in abnormally high prices.
By the beginning of the year 2012, the headline inflation rate had peaked at about 26% but again fell to about 18.65%
by the middle of the same year.
SOCIAL SERVICES:
No government can meaningfully speak of respect for human rights without improving the availability and quality of
essential social services such as education and health.
Education:
Primary School Education
As mentioned in our previous report, the introduction of free primary school education in Uganda in 1997 (otherwise
known as UPE) greatly increased access to education and saw the gross enrolment in primary schools increase from
about 3.1 million pupils in 1996 to about 8.7 million in 2010. This amounts to an increase of approximately 180% (5.6
million children, in 2011 the number was 8,908,177 while in 2012 it increased to 9,220,920
The main beneficiaries of this important policy were the rural population many of whom could not afford to pay for
their children’s tuition.
Additionally and before 1997, many families were inclined to enroll the boy child at the expense of girls. This was
partially due to cultural stereotypes that favoured allocating the family’s meager resources to the boy child. Since then,
the total primary school enrollment has continued to grow and by 2010 was estimated at 8.7 million students. The
challenge however has been on retention of those that will have enrolled.
4