UGANDA, Kampala | Real Muloodi News | Minister of Local Government, Raphael Magyezi, has announced that there will be no creation of new administrative units in Uganda until 2026.
Speaking at the quarterly meeting of chief administrative officers and town clerks of cities and municipalities in Kampala on Thursday 28th February 2023, Magyezi urged the accounting officers to improve the quality of service delivery, stating that there is a lingering public concern about the services offered by local governments.
“Advise your district and municipal councils not to include that on their order paper. That debate can start in 2025. “As of now, let us stick to what we have,” Minister Magyezi said.
“There is a lingering public concern about the services offered by local governments.” We need to step up the professionalism of our staff. Remember that service delivery is the core of the local government,” he added.
According to the Uganda Vision 2040 and Uganda’s National Development Plan III, urbanisation is a vital force for socio-economic transformation across the country, and there is a need for regional and strategic cities to drive the urbanisation agenda.
The Government 2020 initiative created 15 cities in addition to Kampala, the capital city, to achieve this goal.
Effective July 1, 2020, ten cities became operational: Arua, Mbarara, Gulu, Jinja, Fort Portal, Mbale, Masaka, Lira, Soroti, and Hoima. These cities operate under the Local Government Act and the guidance of the National Urban Policy.
Magyezi’s announcement to postpone the creation of new administrative units is expected to help the government focus on improving the quality of services offered by local governments in the existing districts and municipalities.
The decision to delay the creation of new cities and districts could potentially mitigate issues such as land fragmentation and rural poverty, which have been aggravated by the creation of new administrative units in the past.
Furthermore, the announcement is aimed at preventing local governments from focusing on expanding their administrative boundaries and instead working towards improving their service delivery to citizens.
Magyezi’s statement serves as a call to action for local government officials to prioritise the needs of their communities and work towards providing quality services to their constituents.
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