Africa-Press – Uganda. EMPLOYMENT |The Government plans to create over 500,000 jobs in the 2021/2022 national budget.According to the budget framework paper (draft budget) which the finance ministry presented to Parliament last week, the Government plans 159,202 jobs in the agriculture sector next financial year.The interventions include provision of processing facilities, cottage industries, incubation centres, vocational skills, infrastructure development, provision of agricultural inputs, and weather forecasting services.The Government also plans to create 28,406 jobs in the tourism and travel sector through the extension of concessional loans to tourism enterprises, roll-out of the smart cities infrastructure, including CCTV networks, capacity building, technology adoption in marketing, and sale of tourism products.Through interventions in the manufacturing sector, which include subsidised credit, opening up of export markets, provision of support infrastructure, reducing the cost of doing business, promoting local content and support to the Uganda Investment Authority, the Government estimates to generate 49,387 new jobs.In the construction sphere, the Government hopes that through measures such as infrastructure support for new cities, land administration reforms, and labour intensive public works, 28,925 new jobs will be created.About 149,499 jobs are expected from trade interventions, including completion of urban markets, construction of border markets, provision of funding, and support to SACCOs — those under the Presidential Initiative on Wealth Creation (Emyooga). The Government also plans to create 67,425 new jobs from services interventions, such as decentralisation of the Uganda Registration Services Bureau, strengthening of the commercial justice system, and intensified electricity connections.The budget framework paper spells out more government interventions for creating jobs, which include provision of financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), reducing lending rates, developing export market opportunities, and sensitisation of investors on market opportunities.The Government also plans more jobs through mindset change and sensitisation programmes to make Ugandans more creative and hardworking.In the sh45.6 trillion draft 2021/2022 national budget, the Government has proposed to allocate sh1.5 trillion towards agro-industrialisation, sh5.9 trillion for transport infrastructure, sh176b for tourism development, sh648b for private sector development, sh52.7b for manufacturing, sh101b for digital transformation and sh35b for mindset change campaigns for job creation.The high youth unemployment rate is one of the major challenges that have dominated the ongoing election campaigns.What others say about job creationThe National Unity Platform presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, has promised to create five million jobs in the next five years if he becomes president.The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) presidential candidate, Patrick Amuriat, has promised that he would create one million jobs in his first year (2021/2022 financial year) as president of Uganda.The Opposition Chief Whip in Parliament, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, is sceptical about Government’s ability to create 500,000 jobs in one year under the current circumstances.”If you want to monitor progress in creating jobs, look at the list of National Social Security Fund (NSSF) members and government jobs. Government jobs are only 400,000 and NSSF members have been fluctuating between 1.5 million and 2 million. The numbers have not been increasing. Those are the real jobs. Any job that keeps someone in a hand-to-mouth mode is not worth considering a job,” he said.Ssemujju, who is also Kira County MP, argued that under the current circumstances of COVID-19, allocation of more resources to non-productive sectors and mismanagement of public resources, it is very unlikely that 500,000 jobs can be created in one year.Commenting on the Government’s plan for creating thousands of jobs, Makerere University economics lecturer Prof. Augustus Nuwagaba said: “I don’t see that happening when the economy is subdued by COVID-19 and when areas such as agriculture and SMEs, which would create so many jobs, are not adequately funded.Government funding to agriculture, which is only 3%, has not even reached half of what is stated in the Maputo protocol (10%). SMEs cannot access money that the Government is putting in Uganda Development Bank.”
