President Yoweri Museveni - (Photo: Reuters).

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has called for a ban on overseas travel by Members of Parliament and civil servants to save money for priority areas.

Speaking during the commissioning ceremony of facilities at Uganda Petroleum Institute-Kigumba (UPIK), Museveni said he was not happy to learn that the institute does not have enough funding to meet its expectations.

The Petroleum Institute is intended to train local experts in oil exploration.

“Some of them just want money to travel abroad. Tell the civil servants, the MPs and all politicians to stop travelling abroad. Money is wasted on external travel and here Kigumba is crying for money. This is really poor planning,” he said according to the Daily Monitor.

Uganda has embarked on a project to utilize its oil resource by pumping millions of barrels of oil in 2025 from its vast reserves.

“In order to earn $7b from the oil sector. It is not lack of money, but lack of planning by the Ministry of Planning, foresight and wisdom and all that. How can you fail to plan to save money in order to get more money in a very short time?” he said.

The BBC reports that a $3 billion crude oil pipeline that will connect Uganda’s oil fields to a port in neighbouring Tanzania has been opposed by climate activists, mainly in Europe.

The two East African countries say their priority is economic development.