MAN WAS NOT MADE FOR THE ECONOMY

A few weeks ago, a boda rider I often meet told me business had improved. Fuel prices had stabilised, rides were more frequent, and on a good day he could take home sh30,000. “Things are better,” he said, with a shrug that suggested cautious optimism.

But as we talked, the cracks appeared. His children had missed school the previous term over fees. The household still cooked on charcoal. Water came from a shared source two lanes away. When he fell sick last year, treatment meant borrowing from a savings group. Better income, yes. Better life? Not quite.

Last week, the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) released the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2024 report a fresh and long-overdue look at our development story.

For years, we have measured poverty by what is in people’s pockets. The MPI forces a more uncomfortable question: what is missing from their lives?

That shift matters.

"Uganda’s poverty debate has long been framed in narrow terms. Traditionally, we have not even measured poverty by income, but by consumption—how many calories one can afford. If a household can meet minimum food requirements, it is deemed non-poor. By that logic, our boda rider is improving.

But this has always been a flawed lens. Calories can fill the stomach, but they do not power a home, educate a child, insure a family, or connect a business to opportunity.

Western economies, by contrast, define poverty far more broadly—by living standards: access to electricity, clean water, education, healthcare, financial services, and the opportunities these unlock. Poverty there is not just about survival; it is about participation in a modern economy.

And that difference has quietly given us a false sense of progress.

We have celebrated declining poverty rates while ignoring the fact that millions remain locked out of the very systems that create prosperity. The economy has grown—telecoms crossing the billion-dollar revenue mark, banks posting record profits, capital markets deepening—but the lived experience of many Ugandans has changed far more slowly.

The MPI is an attempt to correct that distortion.

By design, it moves beyond income to capture deprivation across education, health, basic services, and living standards. It asks whether a child is in school, whether a household has electricity, whether it can access clean water, whether anyone has health insurance, whether the family is financially included. In short, it measures not just survival—but capability.

This is not new territory for this column.

Over the years, we have returned to a recurring theme: Uganda’s growth story is uneven. It is clear that we can grow this economy even in our sleep—we are currently the enjoyintg the longest stretch of economic growth since 1900. The last time the economy did not grow was in 1985.

We have seen sectors thrive while households struggle. We have told the story of the supplier crippled by domestic arrears, the small business starved of credit, the household one illness away from collapse.

What the MPI does is connect these dots.

It shows that poverty in Uganda is not merely about low income—it is structural. A household may earn something, but still be deprived in multiple dimensions at once: no electricity, poor schooling, no financial access, inadequate housing. These are not temporary setbacks; they are constraints that limit productivity, opportunity, and ultimately growth.

In that sense, the MPI confirms what has long been evident beneath the surface: Uganda’s economy is generating value, but not yet distributing the ability to create value.

Take financial inclusion. For years, we have argued that access to banking and mobile money is not a luxury, but an economic necessity. The MPI now formally recognises this—classifying households without access to financial services as deprived. That is a significant conceptual shift.

The same applies to infrastructure. When we write about water, sanitation, or electricity, it is often framed as a business issue—the cost of doing business. The MPI reframes it as a household issue: without these basics, individuals cannot participate meaningfully in the economy.

And then there is employment. Not just whether people work, but the quality and stability of that work. Growth without jobs—or with precarious jobs—creates the illusion of progress without its substance.

"The MPI does not solve these problems. But it does something equally important: it changes the question...

Instead of asking, “How many Ugandans are poor?” it asks, “In how many ways are Ugandans deprived?”

That distinction is crucial.

"Because once you see poverty as multidimensional, the policy response must also change. It is no longer enough to chase GDP growth or expand incomes at the margins. The focus must shift to systems: education that works, healthcare that protects, infrastructure that connects, financial systems that include.

Markets alone will not deliver this. Nor will the state acting in isolation. It requires a coordinated approach—public investment, private innovation, and institutional discipline.

Encouragingly, some of the building blocks are already in place. The expansion of mobile money, the push toward digital banking, the gradual extension of electricity access—these are steps in the right direction. But they need to scale, and they need to connect.

At its core, the MPI is a reminder of a simple but often forgotten truth, to paraphrase the good book – man was not made for the economy but the economy was made for man.