BUILDING THE FOUNDATION IN ORDER TO CREATE MORE

JOBS AND WEALTH FOR THE UGANDA FAMILIES

Greetings to the youth of Uganda.

St. Paul had an efficient system of communicating with the

early Christian communities in the form of the Epistles to the
respective groups.

The word epistles comes from a Greek

word epistole and means a formal or written communication.

However, my understanding is that the word epistle means a
letter in the language of today.
I would, therefore, like to use the same method to communicate
my views to the youth regarding the problems they face and
opportunities that are available to them today in Uganda.
Let us start with the problems first:

1.

The most pressing problem the youth face, today, are jobs.
In 1969, the Universities of East Africa combined, were
graduating 476 numbers of students per year.
In 1970, when Makerere University became independent,
they were graduating 854 numbers of students. Even at
that time, it was beginning to be difficult for the university
graduates, with general degrees, to find jobs quickly in the
public service. By that time, the phase of Africanizing the
public service jobs was over.

Today, the universities in

Uganda alone, are graduating 40,000 numbers of students

per annum. The numbers, therefore, are much more than
in the 1970s. Yet, the public service jobs have not and
could not have expanded correspondingly. Except for the
teaching service, the armed forces, the police and prisons
services, the rest of the public services have expanded
only marginally. These sectors cannot, therefore, take on
many graduates. Yet, the medical services, the engineering
sectors, the teaching of science subjects in schools and
some of the other science oriented professional sectors,
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still have alot of unmanned jobs even in the public service,

not to mention the private sector or jobs that are manned
by foreigners.

With the population of 35 million people, bearing in mind

the World Health Organization (WHO) population: doctor
ratio of 500 population for one doctor, Uganda needs
70,000 doctors. We only, however, have 2,813 registered
doctors (both in government and private health centres)
i.e. 1,055 in government, 882 in private and the rest are
self- employed in the various clinics.
The global ratio of engineer to population as recommended
by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), is 1 engineer for at most 2,000
people in a country. However, in some countries like Israel
it is 1:74; USA 1:118; Kenya 1:6,328; Uganda 1:90,000.
In Uganda we only have about 5,300-6,000 registered
engineers. This is inspite of the increased tempo of
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training both doctors and engineers, by building new

universities government and private.
By 1986, we were graduating only 79 doctors per year at
Makerere University. We are now graduating 343 doctors
plus 10 dental surgeons per annum in both government
and private universities in Uganda.
We were graduating 38 engineers by 1986. We are now
graduating 934 engineers every year, with Kyambogo
University alone producing 439. Yet, we still have the gap
as pointed out above in manning the job opportunities
available.
In the social sciences sector, on the other hand, there is
big over-subscription of the new graduates who find
difficulty in getting jobs in both the government and
private sectors.

When it comes to the question of jobs,

therefore, this is the paradox that we need to deal with: on

the one hand, a large number of unmanned science
oriented professional jobs and, on the other hand, a large
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number of unemployed graduates mainly with degrees of

social sciences.
The answers to this paradox have been the following:
(i)

putting pressure on the Ministry of Education to give

career guidance to all of our children in secondary schools
on the jobs available in the economy of Uganda and the
world at large;

(ii)

expanding science education by insisting that 70% of

government sponsorship should go to science courses;

(iii) helping the youth, through soft loans, to start any

livelihood enterprises that may be different from the
courses they studied at the university in the four sectors
of the economy; these sectors are: agriculture, industry,
services and ICT.
(iv) innovation fund for the science graduates who may have
any projects they want to implement;
(v)

recruitment into the army, prisons and police where

general education is useful in enhancing the trainability
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and the general understanding of the officers and

militants;
(vi) encouraging the graduates, most of whom speak good
English, to join the Business Processes Outsourcing (BPO)
in the form of ICT call centres and outsourced services
such

as

auditing,

accounting,

etc.

This

is

where

customers, in distant places like USA and Canada,

outsource these services from our youth based here in
Uganda but using the internet services that have been
enhanced with the new ICT backbone on land and the
undersea cable from Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam;
(vii) re-tooling of our graduates that may have done social
science courses but would now be willing to do technical
courses that are more needed in the job market; and
(viii) the proliferating of science and computer labs in all
primary and secondary schools, in order to give them a
more sound science knowledge base at an early age.

I recently, for instance, advised one youth to do a

secretarial service diploma in addition to the degree that
would make her much more employable.

This can be

extended to other fields of technical knowledge.

In the NRM Manifesto, I intend to propose that this retooling of graduates be done at government cost. This is
some support, a type of compensation, for the families
that

would

have

sponsored

their

children

privately

through university education, only to end up with

unemployed graduates.

2.

Above,

we

have

talked

at

length

about

university

graduates. We have laid out the paradox that is found in

many developing countries, that are beginning to move
forward, of a large number of unemployed social science
graduates, on the one hand, as well as a large number of
unmanned science oriented jobs in both the public and
the private sectors, on the other hand.
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Yet, it is not only the graduate jobs that are unmanned.

Even technical jobs that require diplomas and certificates
may be unmanned or manned by foreigners or are manned
by unqualified people.

When it comes, for instance, to

machine operators in factories or road equipment, you

may

find

either

foreigners

or

untrained

Ugandans

manning those units.

When launching the Lwampanga-Namasale ferry, I got
very uncomfortable when I discovered that the operators
of the ferry had been trained on the job by the suppliers of
the ferry from Denmark. I, immediately, ordered for the
starting of marine technical courses at Namasagali
University College, which is a branch of Busitema
University. We are, therefore, planning to build a technical
school in every district first and, eventually, in each
constituency. Some of the technical schools will cover the
broad spectrum of skills e.g. machine operators, building,
carpentry, motor-mechanics, metal work, ceramics, etc.
8

Others will be more specialized such as the Kigumba

Petroleum Institute which is specializing in petroleum and
gas or Namasagali University which should specialize in
Marine courses (boat drivers, ferry technicians, water
navigators etc).
This is not to forget the science teacher colleges, the
medical auxiliaries colleges, etc. We had intended to build
a vocational school in each sub-county.
turned out to be very expensive.

It, however,

Therefore, the present

target of a technical school per constituency is more

realizable. We already have 57 Technical Institutes for S.4
leavers of the different categories, 4 Tourism Institutes, 5
Technical

Colleges

Community

and

Polytechnics

42
for

Technical
P7

Institutes

leavers

and

(Vocational

schools).

3.

The reader of this letter would have noticed that the

heading of the document: Building the Foundation in
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order to create more Jobs and Wealth for the Ugandan

families.

This is because you cannot easily do what I

have laid down above, if you have not created the

necessary foundation. The necessary foundation includes
the following:
adequate and affordable electricity;
good roads that lower the transport costs;
the railway and water transport that further lower
transport costs more than the roads;
universal primary and secondary education that improve
the literacy and numeracy of the population;
the market integration in the East Africa and the African
region that is providing markets for the products of our
agriculture, industry, services and ICT as well as other
skills;
universal immunization and other health programs that
keep the population healthy and saves the families from
spending too much money and time caring for the sick
members of the family as well as being able to work

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without excessive absentism on account of poor health for

the individuals concerned;
security and peace in the whole country so that producers
of wealth and services are not impeded in their pursuits;
and
a corruption-free public service that would facilitate rather
than impede the efforts of Ugandans and foreigners that
would be pursuing any of the gainful efforts I have
outlined above.
If we do not have the above as a foundation, you cannot
sustainably execute this vision of job and wealth creation.
Hence, the THREE PILLARS OF PROSPERITY FOR ALL.
The three pillars are: the foundation, wealth creation and
job creation. All these nevertheless, need funding.
In order to see the linkage among the three pillars, let us
take the example of electricity and transport bottlenecks.
After many years and efforts of trying to get a coffee
processor and a high quality textile factory, we, finally,
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succeeded in getting two companies. One called Vinci, will

roast, grind, package and brand our coffee so that Uganda
can supply coffee consumers in the world directly without
going through other middle men.

Similarly, we also got a textile manufacturer Fine

Spinner who will use Ugandan cotton to produce high
quality products. Both of them, however, pointed out that
electricity that costs more than 5 US cents per unit will
render the two enterprises unprofitable. Yet, once Vinci is
implemented, it will create 287 jobs and earn 120 million
dollars, on the average, in foreign exchange, per annum.
Fine Spinners has already created 800 jobs in Kampala
alone; 6,000 small holder farms for cotton in Kasese and,
by 2017, it will be earning 23 million dollars foreign
exchange per annum.
Therefore, if we did not solve the problem of electricity, not
only availability but affordability, we would lose that
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amount of money and that number of jobs. On the issue

of roads and transport in general, the best examples are
the new roads we have just constructed.

Recently, I addressed a rally in the Isingiro area. One of

the speakers told me that the price of banana bunches
has gone up. When I inquired what the cause was, I was
told that, on account of the brand new road in the area,
many transporters were bringing their vehicles to that
area because the road was no longer costly to operate on
and, therefore, the demand for bananas had gone up and,
hence, the price of bananas has gone up.
When you look at the railway from Mombasa, it now takes
21 days to bring a container from Mombasa to Kampala
and it costs US dollars 2,100.

When the new standard

gauge railway is finished, it will take 24 hours (one day) for

the same container to move from Mombasa to Kampala
and will cost US dollars 1,650. In terms of comparative
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cost per unit, the present railway cost is US$ 2,100 and
the future one will be US dollars 1,650, which means we
shall be saving US dollars 450 per container.

The same

container transported by road today costs 3200 dollars

and takes 7-11 days.

Some time ago, we worked on the Sembabule piped water

supply and I was satisfied that the people of Sembabule
town would be having piped water in their homes,
restaurants, hotels. However, recently, when I went there,
I was told the pump was not being used. In otherwords,
the people of Sembabule were without clean piped water
and yet the water system was already operational. What
was the cause? Lack of grid electricity and depending on
diesel

for

pumping

which

was

expensive

and

not

affordable.
Therefore, creating a foundation that is adequate and
affordable is unavoidable in the battle for job creation and
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wealth creation. Some of the manufacturers are forced to

generate their own electricity so as to avoid the expensive
electricity supplied by the grid. The sugar mills use this
method by generating electricity from the bagasse of their
sugar-canes.
Fortunately, the new dams we are building at Karuma and
Isimba will produce a unit of electricity at either US 5
cents per unit or less. We are also studying ways of how
we

can

re-finance

Bujagali

by

compensating

the

developers who used expensive money in building that

dam so that their price comes down in order to make it
affordable

to

the

consumers,

especially,

the

manufacturers. High costs of doing business in an

economy drive away investors.

Low costs of doing

business in an economy attract investors.

Therefore, if you hear somebody talking about wealth or
job creating but without talking about the foundation, you
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should, then, know that he/she is not serious or he/she is

not honest.
4.

Most of what we have talked about above requires

government expenditure.

However, the government does

not spend money that it does not have.

Therefore, tax

collection becomes very critical. Nevertheless, you cannot

collect taxes if you dont have enterprise operators that
you are taxing.
On account of the collapse of the economy between 1970
and1986, the tax base of Uganda was very narrow. That
is why in 1986 we collected only 5 billion shillings in a
year. Today, we are collecting 12,000 billion shillings per
year.

Why are we collecting more money now than in

1986? It is because we have got more businesses to tax

and more consumers to tax. Therefore, expanding the tax
base is also a precursor to job and wealth creation. That,
however, is not all; not only do we need to widen the tax
16

base as a precursor to solve the above problems, it is also

crucial that we prioritize the way we spend this money.
If we want to be everywhere at the same time, we shall end
up being nowhere. If we want to hit in all directions with
our fist, we shall end up knocking down nothing.

The

Banyankore say that: Owabinga ibiri imutsiga. This

means that when you are hunting, you should not target
more than one animal at one time. Target one animal,
successfully shoot it and, then, go to another animal.
The NRM, by prioritizing expenditure on the roads,
electricity, education for all, immunization, security and
ICT backbone, we have laid a foundation of wealth and job
creation. How?

Making it easy for entrepreneurs to start

their businesses in Uganda, do so in a secure atmosphere

and where they can make profits, are very critical
preconditions for dealing with the issue of wealth and
jobs.
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5.

There is also another foundation issue. This is the

strategic question of somebody buying what you produce
whether a good or a service. If you produce a good or a
service and nobody buys it or a few people buy it, your
business will go bankrupt.

Therefore, apart from the

internal market of Uganda, we need the regional market as

well as access to the international markets. Accordingly,
right from 1986, we started working with our partners in
East Africa to revive the East African common market.
I salute Mzee Ali Hassan Mwinyi and Mzee Arap Moi who
helped me revive this market in the community. I also salute
President Paul Kagame and President Nkurunziza, who, later,
joined the community. This has now created a market for the
East African producers of goods and services, the Ugandans
included.
We have not only created market for our goods and services in
East Africa but, also, we have negotiated with the Americans,
18

the European Union, the Chinese, the Indians and many

others on the access to their markets.
Therefore, the Ugandan innovators and producers along with
all other East Africans cannot say they dont have the market to
sell their products to.
These are some of the few issues that are linked with the
efforts for wealth and job creation.
I thank you very much. We shall discuss more.

Yoweri Kaguta Museveni

PRESIDENT

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