The President of Uganda H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has underscored the urgent need to abolish exploitative practices in commercial lending, advocating for a shift towards sustainable economic models to achieve global prosperity.

His remarks were conveyed by Uganda’s Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Nabbanja Robinah during the ongoing United Nations General Assembly high-level thematic debate on sustainability and socio-economic equality for all at the UN headquarters in New York. She was accompanied by Uganda’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare.

In his message, President Museveni emphasized that commercial lending should be limited to non-essential goods such as spirits and perfumes. However, he stressed that borrowing for critical sectors like infrastructure, manufacturing, and tourism should be done through concessional loans with low-interest rates and extended repayment periods.

The president says that the pseudo-economists and parasites favour the shameful narrow-based growth of the world economy.

“In Uganda, we are always working for broad-based social-economic transformation involving all the stakeholders of the economy,” the President reiterated.

Uganda’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York Ambassador Adonia Ayebare reiterated Uganda’s commitment as the chair of the G77+China and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to cooperate with the United Nations in achieving the set targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ayebare says that the G77+China calls for urgent action on debt sustainability for development and calls for reforms in financial architecture.

The president of the United Nations General Assembly Dennis Francis says that there must be a paradigm shift from rhetoric to action if sustainable development goals are to be achieved.

He adds that Achieving debt sustainability and socio-economic equity necessitates a well-coordinated multilateral effort to reshape and reform the international financial architecture – especially the International Financial Institutions so that they can better support and facilitate sustainable development in the world.

The week-long high-level thematic debate offers an opportunity to identify the challenges in the pursuit of debt sustainability and shine a spotlight on the implications of the current debt crisis on developing nations with a view of accelerating national and international action to achieve socio-economic equality for all.