UGANDA IS SAFER WITH EMPOWERED YOUTHS

 Over 70% of Uganda's population is below 30 years . This means that for sustainable development urgent care and attention should be placed on empowering these youths with skills that can enable them to earn a living. When one passes through Kampala in the morning the scene shows idle youths who are visibly contemplating on the next step. We all know that lives are shaped at a young age. So if youths are devoid of responsibility from the young age, the resultant effects are an increase in crime. A few years ago there was an incident where 2 young men were caught in the act of murdering a prominent businessman in Kampala. They were hired to end a life. That was really tragic. 

The youths can become either a blessing or a curse depending on how they are nurtured. On a good note Ugandans are some of the most hospitable people in the world and it is not surprising that Uganda is one of the most enterprising countries in the world. Very many youths are resilient and have set up businesses to fend for themselves and employ other youths. However they need more support in terms of mentorship and access to affordable capital. The government has tried its best in enabling the youths to access capital and skills through programs such as Parish Development Model and Youth Livelihood programs. Unfortunately when some of the youths receive the money they believe it is a political donation.

The other challenge facing Uganda's youths is the nature of our education system. Most of the time we have been trained to reproduce what has been taught in class. In that way we have for long believed that the academic transcript is meant to secure us a formal job. This explains why there is a lot of frustration among graduates because formal jobs are few. Uganda's universities produce over 400,000 graduates per year. The question is who absorbs all these graduates.  So the government has revisited the education system by introducing a competency based model. This will help in producing graduates who see their degrees from an entrepreneurial lens. We need a generation of graduates who do not wait for formal jobs to make a positive difference in their communities. They can set up social enterprises to solve the pressing social problems at a profit. 

The youths should form groups such as investment clubs to pool resources and learn from each other. I know of a group of university students who formed an investment club and it is worth billions and is engaged in real estate. More youths should be trained in starting groups for socioeconomic development.


For individual and corporate financial literacy training contact:

Coach Phillip Kiryowa

Personal Finance Coach(CMA)

Certified Master Trainer, Bank of Uganda 

Founder, Advanced Empowerment Link.

For Financial Freedom and Sustainable Enterprises.


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