By Michael Atwakiire
Sheema: The Minister for Science Innovation and Technology Dr Elioda Tumwesigye Katsyamutwe, who is also the Sheema municipality Member of Parliament, on Saturday donated 7.5 tonnes of posho, 5 tonnes of Instant Tooke (matooke flour) and 76 boxes of soap all worth Shs52M, to the Sheema COVID-19 District Task Force.
However, while delivering the items, Minister Tumwesigye said that the donation isn’t part of the Shs20M he received from Parliament and asked Sheema District Task Force not to forget that there are people in rural areas who are starving.
“While distributing these food stuffs, you shouldn’t only concentrate on people in Kabwohe town. Each village in Sheema municipality should at least get five vulnerable families to receive five kilograms of posho for each family,” the Minister said.
He also asked the Task Force to give all the five tonnes of Matooke flour to health workers and Village Health Teams (VHTs) in Sheema municipality, because they have sacrificed their time to rescue people’s lives.
Tumwesigye noted that he had decided to donate matooke flour (instant tooke) to create awareness among the public about the advantages of value addition, saying that each kilogram of matooke flour costs Shs6,500.
“I have been able to convince our banana industrial Centre in Bushenyi district (PIBID) to give us five tonnes of matooke flour. This flour can be used as porridge, cooked in banana leaves or as sauce (soup) and all these are aimed at creating awareness among our people about value addition,” Tumwesigye said.
He added that “This is because most of our people suffer with where to put harvested bananas and sometimes prices fall, which forces them to feed the bananas to cattle. But as the ministry of Science, Innovation and Technology, we are doing whatever it takes to add value to our bananas, such that we can make products from them like juice, wine, medicine and bio ethernal, as a way of value addition.”
Sheema Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Frank Kyereere, who heads the Task Force, thanked Minister Tumwesigye for expressing much love for his people by offering them free services through ICOBI and BMC Hospital, food relief, ambulances among other social amenities.
