By Morish Dramadri

Arua city

A section of members of public in Arua city have reacted to West Nile’s rapid population growth of 3.9 million people as per Uganda Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 census preliminary report with a call for increased lobbying for the region.

West Nile region has come third in population growth among the regions following Buganda and Busoga regions that topped the lead respectively.

The president of the 73^rd parliament a civil society organization in Arua city, Drate Yassin called for more creation of jobs within the region to accommodate the rapidly growing population.

“In Arua city alone, we have witnessed a number of crime rates, it came with the high growth of population within Arua city and West Nile at large, this call for more creation of jobs for young people, more budgets for West Nile districts. This population increment has come at a point that really need the leaders to wake up to look at what can he or she do for the community,” Drate said.

Equally, Feni Twaib, the chief executive officer of West Nile civil society network appealed for the increase in lobbying powers to make use of the region’s population.
“If an area has a lot of number, it has got a political implication, people should be able to use that number to negotiate and bargain to make sure that whatever interest they have is lobbied, so it can only be when you understand what you want, for West Nile unfortunately we do not engage so much in production,” Feni said.

The recently released population pyramid by UBOS puts Uganda’s young population below 17 years of age at 50.5% while those between the ages of 18-30 form 22.7% of the country’s population.

Wadri Kassiano Ezati the former Member of Parliament for Arua municipality tasked the leaders in the region to use the population to demand for better services for the people.

“If you are going to have a large Ignorant population then it will be useless to the country, that therefore means government must invest in human capital development, for us here in West Nile we should now be able to say yes we are the third largest in population, what is it that is due for us in terms of development, what is that we can lobby for ourselves that is due to our number,” Kassiano implored.  

Uganda’s population has grown to 45.9 million as of the 2024 census, indicating a growth rate of 2.9% compared to the country’s 34.6 million people a decade ago.