BUHWEJU,UGANDA – Buhweju Woman Member of Parliament Hon. Nnamara Annet Oyes Byamukama who also serves as Chairperson for Gender Affairs at Buhweju Community Transformation Initiatives Limited (BCTI) and Patron of Buhweju Alliance for Women Empowerment (BAWE) used the Buhweju Youth Mindset Day on Saturday 26th September 2026 at Nsiika, Buhweju district to present BCTI’s strategy for revamping the tea industry and to rally young people behind the PLU’s Kisanja No More Sleep transformation call.
Addressing 179 youth leaders from 14 sub-counties at Buhweju Country Resort, Hon. Nnamara said young people must stop waiting for government programs to begin development and instead change their mindset from dependency to partnership and preparedness. She illustrated her message with the story of two young farmers where one kept waiting for capital while the other started with what he had, saved, joined a group, learned a skill and eventually became an employer, noting that she wants Buhweju youth to emulate the second farmer.
The Woman MP tasked youth leaders to become the eyes and ears of their communities by knowing their people, understanding what government programs have already come, who benefited, what worked, what failed and what they themselves have achieved even before government support arrives. She said this evidence-based approach is the reason she initiated BAWE to help women track what belongs to them and how they benefit and urged youth to copy the same model with support from BCTI.
Hon. Nnamara revealed that through BCTI she spearheaded the Tea Industry Performance Improvement Strategy 2025 to influence government action on revamping the tea industry which is a lifeline for Buhweju, and noted with satisfaction that positive steps are now being taken to implement the strategy with hope that government will support BCTI to undertake more interventions. She stressed that youth must be organized into formalized groups and registered businesses with records, savings and viable business plans because government deals with formal entities.
She challenged the youth that when government brings agricultural support it should find organized farmers, when it brings enterprise financing it should find viable businesses, when it brings skills it should find youth who know which skills they need and when it brings markets it should find people already producing. She summarized her philosophy in five words of Know, Organise, Start, Measure and Expand.
In her conclusion, Hon. Nnamara rallied the youth under the slogan Kisanja No More Sleep, declaring that development begins when they change their mindset and take the first step. She called upon the Chief Administrative Officer and the district executive to take stock of government youth initiatives and demonstrate how they have helped youth succeed, promising to share regular updates through the BCTI magazine to enable evidence-based decisions. She thanked District Youth Chairperson and mobilizer Basimwe Denis for mobilizing the 179 youth leaders and blessed the youth of Buhweju, President Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and PLU Chairman Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, saying the time to sleep on opportunities is over.
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