HiPipo Money

Uganda has one of the youngest populations globally. Each year, up to 800,000 Ugandans join the job market. These include some 100,000 fresh graduates from Universities and other institutions of higher learning.

Unfortunately, the job market only absorbs a small percentage of these with the rest having to either create their own jobs or remain unemployed.

Even worse is the fact that many of those employed, lack the necessary real work environment skills, their qualifications notwithstanding. This is largely because of theory education, and limited practical studies offered by the old syllabus.

In a move to address this skills gap, Enabel and Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU) with support from the Mastercard Foundation are implementing the Work Readiness Program to specially enhance employability and productivity of young graduates from universities and other institutions of higher learning.

The Work Readiness Program (WRP) supports recent university graduates to acquire practical work experience and boost soft skills through attachments to jobs in the sectors of Manufacturing, Agro-processing, Construction, Tourism and ICT for six paid months.

Under this six months’ arrangement, the Word Readiness Program pays 80 per cent of the selected graduate’s salary while the organization the graduate is working for pays the 20 per cent. 

The program that is being implemented together with over 30 organizations in the sectors of Manufacturing, Agro-processing, Construction, Tourism and ICT has already benefited some 500 fresh graduates.

According to Betty Twesiime, the Graduate Relations Officer Under The Work Readiness Program at PSFU, this program is open to citizens and residents of Uganda who graduated from a University with a transcript or evidence of processing one. The eligible candidates must have completed or graduated not more than 2 years from date of application, seeking work in one of the targeted sectors (Agro Processing, Construction, ICT, Manufacturing, Tourism & Hospitality) and willing to commit to a 6-month work readiness programme.

“There are no charges paid for attending the interview or for joining, if selected. The shortlisted candidates will have to appear for an interview at a venue that will be communicated. The award of a placement does not confer on the candidates any right for absorption in the host companies under any circumstances,” she said, adding;

“Candidates will be required to produce original of all certificates/testimonials and any other relevant certificate, community certificate, if applicable, during the interview. Female graduates in male dominated trades in these sectors are encouraged to apply.”

The Work Readiness Program adds to a list of other initiatives that PSFU is implementing under the Lead Firm Structure (LFS) Program.

Since its launch in 2019, the LFS project has so far mobilized 137,077 Ugandan Youth and managed to transit over 100,000 Youth into meaningful and dignified work, whilst targeting to create at least 300,000 jobs by 2025.

Stakeholders in the Tourism Industry are convinced that Uganda has what it takes to become a leading Birders destination globally and now target hosting at-least 100,000 birders and earning up to USD 700 million per year by 2030.

This was revealed at the inaugural International Conference for Women Birders (IC4WB) held at Sheraton Hotel Kampala from 6^th to 8^th December and attended by birders and Tourism stakeholders from allover the world.

 “This is a life time experience for me. Uganda is so outstanding with professional tour guides, a variety of birds and the different biodiversity elements. The potential is unlimited and needs to be tapped into,” Andrea Molina, a Bird Guide from Ecuador, South America noted.

Birding is a valued activity worldwide with over 80 million birders traveling to different parts of the world to enjoy it. These include over 20 million from the United States of America (USA) alone.

Some 1,100-bird species call Uganda home, which is about 11 per cent of the world’s total population and more than 50 per cent of the African’s total birds’ population. Nonetheless, the opportunities presented by these birds are yet to be fully explored to benefit Ugandans.

According to Jeff Bouton, the marketing manager of Nature Observation USA, one way of making the birding sector attractive is through reducing or totally doing away with taxes on birding equipment.

“There are massive import taxes on these products that make them hard to get. The government should find a way of reducing or removing these taxes totally. This will help create more professional guides, make the birding tools more available and improve the overall birding experience for tourists,” Mr Bouton said.

The three days conference was organized by organized by Uganda Women Birders, Uganda Safari Guides Association, Bird Uganda Safaris, and supported by Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), Uganda Wildlife Authority and Ministry of Tourism Wildlife and Antiquities.

Mr Stephen Asiimwe, the Chief Executive officer of the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda said that the country has matured as an international birding destination in the region mainly because of conservation efforts, location along the equator and climate, improved infrastructures, security and improved internet connectivity.

These, he said, although not yet sufficient, can be leveraged to increase the number of visitors coming into the county with the purpose of birding.

He added that more efforts from both the government and the private sector were still needed to market the product so as to attract both local and international tourists.

“Birding in Uganda has the potential to improve from the level it is now to earning us millions of dollars each year. The issue of birding is a mind-set issue the private sector and other partners can change. The communities where these birds are should be made to appreciate the need for these birds,” he said.

Mr Asiimwe called for an urgent need to conserve habitats as this is the only sure way of ensuring that these top dollar earners are safe and available for business.

The private sector continued to influence Uganda’s development in 2023, even amidst several challenges that affected the ease of doing business locally and across the region.

Speaking at the first private sector Gala organized by Private Sector Foundation Uganda (PSFU), the organization’s chairperson, Mr Humphrey Nzeyi, said that the private sector has this year recorded several positives which include influencing the tax and budgetary decisions of the country.

“In the 2023/24 annual budget, PSFU was instrumental in advocating for a better tax regime and budget allocations and to this end 78% of the suggestions we made during the budget cycle were adopted by the Government in this year’s budget,” Nzeyi said.

The PSFU Gala and Awards event was organized to give private sector players, government and development partners a chance to network and seek more developmental partnerships.

PSFU used the Gala to unveil several partnerships including with UNHCR, UN Women, KCCA and Uganda Baati. These partnerships will see private sector players work directly with these organizations to explore business opportunities in refugee settlements, empower more women and plant over one million trees around Kampala as means to mitigate climate change issues.

Challenges.

Nonetheless, the persistent non-tariff barriers across regional markets continued to affect the growth of Uganda’s private sector and further delayed the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic aftershocks.

According to Mr Stephen Asiimwe, the PSFU CEO, hopes for an improved private sector growth have this year were undermined by these non-tariff barriers after several exporters registered losses due to blockades.

“This year, one of our main challenges was the standoffs we have had with countries like South Sudan over maize, and Kenya over milk among others which have had a great negative impact on the sector,” he said.

In March, Kenyan authorities banned Ugandan milk products from their market reportedly to protect local farmers from external products, as they anticipated an increase in their output.

Then, around May, over 40 Ugandan registered trucks transporting maize produce were impounded on their way to Juba by the South Sudan Bureau of Standards.

Mr Asiimwe added that apart from the non-tariff barriers, the private sector growth has also been thwarted by poor road networks to key markets, expensive air transport which could have been used for perishable goods like flowers and vegetables and slow progress on the Standard gauge railway which is highly billed to cut transport costs and time.

Government Commitment.  

Ms Evelyn Anite, the State minister of Finance for Investment and Privatisation said that the government was still committed to reducing the cost of doing business in the country to bolster operations of the private sector and attract more investments both foreign and local in the long-term through improvement of transport, electricity and easier access to market.

“We are in advanced stages of making sure that we address the challenge of access to the market for our private sector. This is mainly going to be through the Africa Continental Free Trade area,” she said.