Empowering Ugandan youths to be
job creators.
Team name –In God we trust
farmers and development
association.
Country – Uganda.
Mentor – Mrs. Akongo Benza.
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Youth unemployment refers to the non-utilization of labor in any productive activity for a reward in terms of
wages or salaries or profits. In Uganda many youths are unemployed and the situation is not good for the youths.
Many youths who are most affected are those between 15-35 years of age. Both the educated and non educated
are affected by unemployment many youths have migrated to urban centers with a hope of getting white collar
jobs but they end up being frustrated. Personally I am affected and all my peers in our community are also
affected by youth unemployment situation in Uganda. we have looked for white collar jobs for the last five years
but all in vain. some of our peers have left Uganda and have gone to other countries to look for jobs.
The following are the effects of youth unemployment in our country Uganda:
Unemployed youths most of the time fell unhappy compared to their employed counter parts who fell very happy
most of the time. Money brings happiness because it makes you get what you need.
Unemployed youths in Uganda are living below poverty line and they hardly spend one dollar a day and they live a
very low standard of living and in most cases in very poor health. As you know when you have money, you can eat
well ( have a balance diet) and people who are well fed have good health and they are very productive.
Youth unemployment result into low education level. Majority of the youths in Uganda come from very poor
families and the parents/ guardians cannot educate them to high level of education. The youths themselves are
supposed to further their education when they have got work and earn income. This is not possible because we
have very high level of youth unemployment. The youths are not able to further their education so they just stop
at a very low level of education.
Many unemployed female youths migrate to urban areas and they go in for prostitution and we have prostitutes in
95% of all the urban areas in Uganda. This is as a result of unemployment and the end result is high rate of
HIV/AIDs infections which has killed many youths.
Youth unemployment has resulted into exploitation of labor by both the local and foreign investors in Uganda. You
are paid the amount as they wish and this is because the government of Uganda has failed to come up with a
minimum wage for workers in Uganda.
Many youths have moved to other countries to look for jobs due to youth unemployment in Uganda and most of
them end up doing work which is not good. Like a graduate working as a cleaners.
• In Uganda youth unemployment has resulted into high crime rates. For
some youths to survive, they must look for a way of getting money so they
go in for stealing, high way robbery stealing buy trick. Some of the youths
who are unemployed engage themselves in gambling in order to earn a
living. Since the unemployed youth is very vulnerable to any thing that
comes in, some youths have join social evils of homosexuals which is not
allowed in our country. When they join homosexuals, they are given a lot
of money.
• Unemployed youth suffer psychological problems. They face problems of
depression, anxiety and frustration which affect negatively their life.
• Due to youth unemployment in Uganda, it has made many young youths
to enter marriage at a very early age and has causes many problems in
their health and also in the country it has caused a very big problem
because the young people who are still dependants are getting married
without any skills to make them earn a living. They just depends on the
parents who are also poor. So the viscous cycle of poverty just continues
and it becomes very hard to break it.
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In Uganda, the causes of youth unemployment are as can be seen below:
The education system in Uganda is in appropriate. A child spends 13 years at school without having identified the talent or area of specialization in
this child. In add to that the education curriculum is in appropriate. It covers more of theoretical studies than the practical side which can make
somebody to create his/her job.
Some youths are unemployed because of mismatch in the skills required for certain jobs and this renders many youths unemployed.
The banking institutions in Uganda have unfair regulations as far as getting a bank loan is concerned. Many youths in Uganda would like very much to
get a loan from the bank and start small and medium enterprise as a way of self employment. The banking institutions put a very hard conditions for
the youths to access the a band loan. The bank needs collaterals before you are given a loan and they also charge very high interest rates. So these
conditions, the youths cannot afford so they cannot get a bank loan in any bank to help them start an enterprise as a way of being self employed. So
they remain unemployed.
In Uganda we have very poor saving culture and many youths have adopted this culture. The little money one gets, all is used without saving any
thing. At the end of the year you find that a youth has no single coin saved even to start up a small enterprise.
In both primary and secondary schools in Uganda, there is poor counseling and guidance program very little time is given for it. Schools do not take
it as a serious issue towards the future of the children. carrier guidance is very vital in helping a child study and train for a job that fits the individual.
The parents on the other hand force their children to take a course they have selected for them not considering their brain capacity to under take
the course. This all together has made the youths to train for the jobs they cannot do well and inmost cases most of them end up being fired in their
jobs and they remain unemployed.
There is a high growth rate of youth unemployment in urban areas in Uganda. Hundreds of thousands of youths migrate from rural areas to urban
areas in search of jobs. Many of them end up not getting any jobs and they remain unemployed people living in urban slums in very bad living
conditions.
The retirement age in Uganda is very high. Many employed people do not want to leave office for the youths. They want to remain in the office as
long as one can still work. This makes the youths to remain unemployed for many years.
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There is lot of corruption in Uganda today. Getting a job means that you must use money. Without
money no job for you. Even the government officials who are in big offices are taking advantage of
it and they are stealing billions of money which is meant for developing Uganda and creating jobs.
So this is causing a very big problem where by very few jobs are created yet the population is
increasing every year. on addition to that we do not have real democratic governance in Uganda.
The people in power do not want to leave office. The office is very good for them. They just play
around with the constitution for example the issue of power limit for the president has been
changed just by few people in power to make the ruling government stay in power for many years.
A lot of money on the national budget is spend on defense instead on development issues for the
purpose of keeping them in power. This makes them to create very few jobs for the youths.
The government program of free universal primary and secondary education in Uganda is
producing children who cannot compete in the job market. 90% of the total population of school
going children are in rolled in this program because it for the poor. The rich take their children to
good schools and they pay a lot of money and they get quality education. So those children from
universal primary and secondary cannot compete in job market with their counter parts from good
schools. So many youths from the so called universal education do not get jobs.
Climate changes has cause youth unemployment in Uganda. Millions of youths in Uganda are
employed in agricultural sectors to a small extend but due to climate change, agricultural
production has been affected greatly. We some time have prolonged drought for about four
months and this makes the youths unemployed.
• OUR SOLUTION.
Our vision is to create massive employment for all the youths in Uganda who are unemployed. Majority
of the youths who are unemployed in Uganda can read and write and they have attained some level
of education. We are going to target the youths who can read and write and we want to help them
create their own jobs. We are going to select the youths who can read and write and they are
unemployed, train them in entrepreneurship skills which can make them start up small and
medium enterprises. After training them in business skills, the project will empower the trained
youths with soft loans with very low interest rate of 1% per month. This will enable the youths to
start small and medium enterprise. Every youth who will benefit from the project has to become a
member of the association before he/she benefit from the project. The maximum amount of a
loan to be given for a period of one year is $1000 and this means that the beneficiary will have to
return back $1120 at the end of the year. The beneficiary will be expected to save some money
every month with the association. This will help inculcate the saving culture to youths. The more
money we have, the more youths we can reach. The success of this project will be measured by the
total number of enterprises set up by the youths. The more enterprises set up, the greater is the
success of the project. Books of record for every beneficiary will be kept and this will help us
evaluate the success of the project. The out come and result of our project will be increased
number of jobs created by the youths, improved standard of living and social and economic
development of the individual youth and their families. The solution will reach 5000 unemployed
youths and 100 young people will be engaged in the project as volunteers and after the project has
generated some income, they will be employed by the project. Six hours per day will be spend on
this project for six days a week.
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The second solution which we can undertake to help create jobs for the youths in our country is to
start up a modern vocational skill training center in the country with a component of talent
identification unit. Before one joins the vocational training center one has to under go talent
identification course. This will help identify the correct carrier for the youth and it will help train for
the right job. The school curriculum of Uganda should be re-oriented to bridge the gap between
what is taught and the job one has to do. Many students who excel in schools do not necessary do
so in life. It is very possible that the education of Uganda spends too much time and resources
teaching the wrong things or evaluating students in the wrong way. Many students have very good
talents if identified and developed, they can be in very good position to create their own jobs.
The modern vocational skill training center will train youths in carpentry and joinery, brick laying and
concrete practices, welding and fabrication, tailoring and design, driving and mechanics, shoe
making and repair, hair dressing and saloon, catering.
The youths will be selected , talents identification carried out and then training will be offered free of
charge. After training, the trained youths will be given some seed money inform of equipments or
tools needed so that one is able to set up his/her own work shop. The trained youth will be
expected to pay back 20% of his monthly income to the project for a period of four years and this
will cover the cost used in the training and provision of tools/equipments to the youth. The money
will then be used to sustain the project and reach many other youths in country.
The out comes and result of the project will be increased jobs created by the youths in Uganda. The
project targets to reach 1000 youth in the first year and by five years time it would reached about
5000 youths.