Would $200m really be worth it, if that is what we raised?

Considering the level of destitution in our region, $200m would surely be worth it. Here is how other people would normally use this money:

 

#1:

Infrastructure-wise, there are a number of malls in Uganda’s capital Kampala that have been constructed for more than $200m for a single building, for example this one (whose cost was $300m). In our case, this $200m will instead move countless rural households from abject poverty, in Uganda’s poorest region the size of an entire country, Gambia.

 

#2:

Agriculture-wise, one Ugandan entrepreneur recently used $120m of his own money to install an integrated agro-processing plant similar to the one that we are aiming to develop. His business model, however, doesn’t include any direct material support to local farmers. And since his plant isn’t yet operational, it is safe to say that, by the time actual operations begin, the total cost (including working capital) will be well beyond $180m, and again, none of this will go to local farmers.

Also, his plant was installed in one of Uganda’s well-to-do regions, i.e., central Uganda, only 14km from Uganda’s capital Kampala, which is Uganda’s most developed region — with lots of similar plants.

In our case, a $200m plant will not only be the very first such plant in Busoga, Uganda’s poorest region, but also, its sole purpose will be to stem poverty, with 80% of the whole plant owned directly by the rural poor, and the other 20% being used to reach more poor households.

This all shows why $200m would surely be worth it, if only we raised it.

 

#3.

Lastly, global poverty-wise, i.e., as far as the global fight against poverty is concerned, I am very sorry to say this, but $200m is really nothing, compared to what humanity currently spends every year in the name of ending global poverty, without touching people like us, and without making a dent in the lives of people like us in any way.

The UNDP, for instance, a single global antipoverty agency, spends $5b every year (that figure was $6.7b in 2022 alone), far bigger than the GDP of several African countries — and I don’t know of a single person in my region who escaped extreme poverty in 2022, as a result of this.

A $200m plant would be 2.9% of the UNDP’s 2022 expenditure alone.

When you bring together the millions of other global antipoverty agencies and international charities whose goal is to end extreme poverty — which agencies have nonetheless left the Global Goals to completely stall — you realize that a $200m plant is literally 0.00000% of what these people spend every year for the purpose of ending global poverty, without touching people like us in any way.

So, $200m would surely be worth the work that we would be doing with rural poor farmers in our region, if only we raised this money.