August 24, 2021 – Prime Time Communications

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Use the 20% of your NSSF money as tuition fees for entrepreneurship

By Denis Jjuuko When Zakaria turned 55, he felt that he had had enough with the 9-5 job and opted to retire a few years early. Zakaria used to frequent a small drinking joint near his home where he met other people with similar working patterns. They talked about life — work, the partners they once dated, how their children were turning out and generally reminisced about the good old days. Once in a while, they talked about their pending retirement, which is euphemism for retirement benefits from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) or gratuity payments. Business ideas were floated. Every business idea that was discussed, like all businesses, was profitable on paper! Soon, Zakaria was blaming himself for having worked for all these years. Had he resigned a few years earlier, he would have been a billionaire by now. He kept on remembering the good old adage of better late than never. Zakaria withdrew his benefits and went straight into business. Kampala’s dealers identified a truck commonly known as Magulu Kumi (10-tyre, 25-ton truck) for him. Zakaria was to earn Shs1.5m every week. The Magulu Kumi was of course old and needed a few repairs, new tyres and such other stuff. He was excited. This new business was to pay more money than he had ever earned. A driver was identified and his assistant (turn boy). Things were good. Zakaria started earning his promised Shs1.5m every week. His buddies at the drinking joint celebrated him. After about three months, Zakaria started getting more stories from the driver than the weekly Shs1.5m. He fired the driver and hired another one and the pattern continued. Eventually, the business collapsed. If you don’t know any Zakaria, you haven’t been keen enough. According to studies by NSSF, most people who get their retirement benefits lose them within two years. The major reason is because, like Zakaria, they get into businesses they have no ideas about. The good news is that the president accented to the law that allows midterm access for NSSF savers. So if you are 45 years or older and you have saved for 10 years with NSSF, you now qualify to access 20% of your savings. Why is this good news? If you are planning to retire say at 60 or even 55, you can now withdraw this money and use it as your entrepreneurship tuition fees. I don’t mean enrolling for a degree in entrepreneurship rather to start the business you want to do when you retire. Start the business now and use this 20% to learn the ropes of the industry you have joined. Whatever business you start, there will be stuff to learn, unlearn and relearn. They are never identified through preliminary studies and when you are writing a business plan. Since to most savers 20% won’t be a lot of money, that is even better. When you start small, you are able to learn and then grow the business. So 10 or 15 years later, when you withdraw the other 80%, you would have learnt how business works. You may even have started and closed several businesses until you found one that works for you. The majority of businesspeople start many businesses until they settle on what works for them because naturally some businesses will work while others won’t. This idea of 20% is great because it teaches savers what they never learn at school and during the time they were working, which is handling money and basically running a successful enterprise. It is different working as a business manager or financial manager in other people’s businesses than when the business is yours. Sometimes big companies and organizations can absorb some losses, they can move money from one market to another and ensure that workers and creditors are paid. They also most times have systems that work that have been established over the years. When it is your business, you have to set up the systems and become the shock absorber when the road gets tough. So in 10-15 years, the person who used their 20% NSSF money to start a business, would have picked lessons and when they qualify for the other 80% they would certainly know where to invest it. That way, NSSF savers won’t become part of the usual statistics of majority of them losing the money in under two years. There is something they usually don’t say — most people who lose such money also die within five years. The reason is because they haven’t mastered the art of being shock absorbers. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Wood to power solutions could reduce household poverty

By Denis Jjuuko A head of the household returned home after a long day of trying to fend for the family. Previously, he had bought some dry rations to take through the family during the lockdown. He was warmly welcomed back by the people he had left at home, helping him to settle in so they could serve him some tea and some food later. Upon entering the kitchen, he saw a saucepan on the electric cooker and as he passed by, he realized the people he had left at home were cooking dry beans. He screamed his lungs out — how could you cook beans using electricity? “Do you want me dead?” he further screamed. This message was contained in a viral meme that has been circulating in the last few days. If you carried out a living standards survey in Uganda, you will realize that they aren’t many households with electric cookers. Those who have such gadgets are supposed to be middle or upper class or high-income earners. Electricity is considered expensive to use for cooking stuff that don’t even need as much energy as dry beans. In many households that have electric cookers, the purpose for them is to quickly make an egg omelette, warm milk for kids before they run to school and such other light meals. Cooking meals for the entire households is usually done using charcoal and/or firewood especially by those families that don’t put their hands in the public till. It is considered less expensive to use charcoal and firewood than electricity. In some households, electricity is only for lighting, charging phones, and watching TV once in a blue moon. This has made wood the biggest source of energy in Uganda leading to the depletion of our natural forests and significantly contributing to climate change. Uganda’s installed generation capacity is 1,268.9Megwatts as of June 2021 which is largely clean energy from hydro plants. With Karuma and other small hydro plants under construction such as Nyamagasani 1 and Achwa 1 coming online in mid 2022, the installed capacity will increase to 1,900MW. However, the transmission is still low at 3,100.5km as of June 2021, which limits supply to especially rural areas. However, for those who are already connected to the grid, affordability is a key issue which makes old men cry when they return home and electricity is being used to cook dry beans instead of frying eggs and warming milk for kids. Yet there is a cost beyond climate change to households that depend entirely on biomass energy sources such as wood. Smoke from charcoal and firewood is said to cause non communicable diseases like cancer, which kill many people every year. Chronic diseases like cancers are also key contributors to household poverty as they are costly to treat. When a member of a household in Uganda is sick, there are several other people who devote all their time to looking after the person instead of working. Money that would have enabled kids to go to school is instead used for treating the sick. For cancers, even household properties such as land is sold in a bid to save a life, which further denies the affected household income thereby sinking it into abject poverty. Electricity is capital intensive and for the private sector that is involved, there must be a return on investment for them. However, the government of Uganda must always support the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to push for wood to power initiatives so people can use less biomass energy. The ministry through the Electricity Regulatory Authority recently reduced the power tariffs but more must be done so that households can use electricity for cooking beans and ironing. If more people are connected to electricity and use it for cooking and ironing, the cost of distributing that power will be less. Numbers significantly reduced the cost of telephony; they can do the same for electricity. Also, there won’t be power generated and not used, a factor that somewhat makes electricity expensive. Promotion of renewable energy such as solar heaters, biogas technologies, and power saving systems such as automated security lights for homes and businesses could be a solution. Households must also learn to carry out regular power audits so that they understand what consumes their electricity to reduce on the bill or turn that energy into cooking and ironing instead of having a heart attack when dry beans and cow hooves are cooked using electricity. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch 28 years of Kabaka Mutebi and what lies ahead

By Denis Jjuuko In the 1990s, with many of Uganda’s population dying from preventable diseases, there was need for massive vaccinations. Many parents and guardians of children looked at vaccinations with a suspicious eye — same way some people look at COVID-19 vaccinations. The Bazungu, people argued, want them dead. Vaccines, the argument went had a secret ingredient to stop Africans from giving birth so the Bazungu can take their land. The antivaxxers were taking the day and winning the argument. Kabaka Ronald Mutebi appeared in Mawokota and immunized just one baby. With cameras clicking, the antivaxxers lost the argument. The Kabaka loves his people and therefore can’t be part of a scheme to kill them. Many parents and guardians who were previously skeptical embraced the vaccination campaign. As Kabaka Mutebi marked his 28th anniversary last weekend, his influence on health and education has been immense. His role didn’t end with immunizations. We know much more about fistula and sickle cell disease because of his recent campaigns to create awareness and then find remedies especially through the revived Kabaka Birthday Run that is held every April. As the UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for Male Engagement on HIV/AIDS, there is hope that when studies finally come out, there will be much more reductions in numbers of people getting infected by this disease and perhaps have it fully eliminated by 2030. Kabaka Mutebi has in the last 28 years used his immense political and social power to influence development. Education is important if people are to be healthy and it is only a healthy informed population that can get itself out of poverty. Of course, this didn’t start with Mutebi, his predecessors pushed for sanitation in homes. Lack of a pit latrines or a rack for utensils was unacceptable — a reminder that Buganda had always put its people at the forefront. But for the 27 years, the kingdom had been abolished, people had given up hope. His education schemes including bursaries awarded not only to the people of Buganda but to all Ugandans from across the country are perhaps the biggest such programme in the country. Many people today including some that are now becoming leaders got their education through the Kabaka’s Education Fund. He didn’t stop there, he set up schools among them a technical institute and a fully-fledged university. Today, through poverty alleviation programmes like Emmwanyi Terimba, we are seeing unprecedented numbers of coffee exports with 618,388 bags of 60kgs exported in June 2021 alone. People who had abandoned coffee in Buganda are growing it again. Most of Uganda’s coffee is grown in Buganda. Where people grow coffee, they also grow Matooke ensuring food security for the region. Borrowing from CBS FM’s successful Pewosa programme, there is need to organize these farmers at village, parish, subcounty and county levels into cooperatives so they can use their collective power to advance their interests such as owning milling and processing plants and starting exporting companies. The kingdom budget has increased from zero in the 1990s to Shs121 billion in 2021. All this growth is having an effect on the region and the country at large. In the last 28 years, the kingdom has set up 33 companies and organisations, which directly employ Ugandans and pay taxes to the government of Uganda thereby contributing to national development. Although so much has been achieved already, there is so much that needs to be done. The people of Buganda want a modern hospital. Although that may be a tall order at the moment, it is possible. However, the kingdom could start with telemedicine. Using its 18 county headquarters as a base to set up commercially viable clinics and then deploy technology to reach people. Most people, like we have seen with COVID-19, don’t need to visit hospitals. Doctors and healthworkers can reach them using videocalls and other such options. A lab worker can then go to them to get samples for testing and then medicine is prescribed. A future prosperous Buganda will have to rely a lot on technology to reach people. Drawing on the experiences of male engagement on HIV/AIDS, the kingdom may also need to do some work on the boy child especially in urban areas. Previously, once a boy turned 18, they left their father’s house and went to start life on their own. That made people prosperous because they used most of their energetic years working hard. Today, many of the highly educated urban male youth are comfortable talkers and not doers. Owning the latest iPhone has become a yardstick for success. Role modelling for them is important and nobody is more suited for this than Kabaka Mutebi and his team of administrators. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch What graduates could learn from those with informal education

By Denis Jjuuko There is always a debate in Uganda and perhaps in other parts of the world about formal education and entrepreneurship. The argument posits that formal education incapacitates entrepreneurship. The argument is that people who don’t go through formal education set up businesses and become very successful. A few examples are always cited pointing at who owns which high-rise building. American tech entrepreneurs who abandoned their formal education programs to set up companies that became unicorns are also always mentioned. It is easy to get caught up on the side of this argument until you ask how many of these billionaires actually exist. The argument is always devoid of numbers and percentages. Of the uneducated people in Uganda, how many actually become billionaires? How many are able to survive in this treacherous world of business? Of the buses that ferry people who dropped out of primary in schools to Kampala or any urban areas, how many make it in the city? How many return to abject poverty? How many such entrepreneurs are not one health emergency away from abject poverty? Having said that, what makes some of the people who only attained informal education especially as traders make it in life than those who attained formal education? I think there is not a single answer to this question because I think people who are to succeed will always do regardless of their formal or informal education. There is always something beyond education—formal or informal; the X-factor or what some call destiny. But I think one of the main reasons why people who didn’t go far with their formal education succeed is time — the most important element that makes most entrepreneurs successful. People who don’t go into formal education start handling money at a very early age. By around age 10 or 15, they have started handling money, they are learning more about money and the opportunities that money creates than those in school. By age 30, those with informal education have had 15-20 years of working experience handling money. Those with formal education at the same age, are just starting out. They are underemployed and are basically where their colleagues with informal education were 15-20 years ago. Most people with formal education at age 30 haven’t done much. They are just getting noticed at work and because they don’t have any experience with money, whatever they earn goes to consumption. A high end rented apartment, a Subaru on salary loan, and the latest iPhone and thinking or going back for a masters degree so they could land the corner office. The guy with informal education, at this time they are investing in assets that will be worth a lot of money in 10-15 years. At 40, the guy with a formal education is now starting to invest, buying their first plot of land and dreaming of entering an incomplete house on a 50×100 feet plot as the ultimate dream. At 45, he starts investing for products that will mature in 5-15 years. Meanwhile the guy with the informal education is now cashing in on his maturing investments and getting more investments. To make money, unless you are an outlier, takes time. To invest Shs1m and be able to get Shs10m out of it, requires time. That is why majority of guys with formal education once they withdraw their NSSF money, it is wasted within two years. They have no experience handling money. One investment failure is the end of the life. By this time, the other guys have failed, failed and failed and somewhat got it right. The issue, therefore, is not formal education rather time when one starts investing. If you look back at some of your formal education friends who were trading and investing while at university, there are most likely far ahead today in terms of investments because they have had much more time learning about money and investing it. They also know how to handle failure and have the experience to dust themselves up and move again. And that is the lesson people with formal education should learn from those with informal education. To start learning about money early. Ugandan university students have a lot of time. Many only have classes in the evening, weekend or even a few hours a day. The rest of the time is spent indulging in mostly entertainment and such other things. How can they use this time to learn more about money by doing some businesses? In hostels around universities, people with informal education turn up to plait students’ hair, do laundry and selling them used spaghetti tops. What stops a university student from going to Owino buy clothes and sell them to fellow students? That way they can learn about money early in life. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch The easiest way to regulate medical bills in private hospitals

By Denis Jjuuko The High Court in Kampala issued orders to force government to regulate medical bills for COVID-19 patients. The worst place to be for an average Ugandan today is to be in need of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed so you could see another day. It is understandable that the high court came to the side of the people in need of ICU and High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds but it is the wrong thing. Uganda subscribes to the liberal economy theory where everyone charges what they want. Demand and supply determine how much people charge. In early June when many people were dying and as Ugandans looked for anything that could help them survive COVID-19, lemons, and I mean lemons, went from Shs100 in some markets in Kampala to Shs2000 each! If you need a taxi in rush hours, they triple the transport fare from A to B. Each fuel station in Kampala from the same brand has a different price per a litre of petrol. In Bakuli near Mengo, a litre of petrol is cheaper by about Shs500 than in Ntinda or Bukoto. Schools charge as exorbitant fees as medical facilities. A kid in a nursery school who is trained how to use a potty, which it already knows pays more than those at some universities. The reason is because parents are very excited when their offspring are still young. As they grow, the excitement wanes but also there are more options. Some people go to universities while others abandon school and go do other things since they are adults. The point is that in Uganda everyone charges whatever they want whether it is medical or not. And this didn’t start with COVID-19. Pediatricians to examine a child for flue charge as much as Shs100,000 in consultancy fees! How is the government going to regulate these fees? Cancer patients long before COVID-19 have been paying enormous bills yet the government spends USD150 million a year on average taking its officials abroad for treatment. This is enough money to set up hospitals here. I was looking at the Kampala COVID-19 ICU/HDU Dashboard set up by the Association of Anesthesiologists of Uganda that give real time update of the availability of ICU/HDU. A hospital in one of the suburbs set up originally in a home less than 10 years ago has 17 ICU beds — the most in any private facility. How did they get them? This hospital is run by a couple who are as old as the NRM has been in power. How did they set up the facility where the government has failed? The easiest way for the government to regulate medical bills and even school fees is by building more hospitals and schools. Most people in government today who make decisions were either born in public hospitals or at home by traditional birth attendants. The majority if not all went to public schools. Today, nobody with some little income wants to take their kids to public schools. People rather take on unbearable debt borrowing school fees to give their kids a fighting chance later in life than sending them to a school where they won’t learn much. Uganda’s population has significantly grown over the last 30 years from 18 million to 45 million today but the public facilities such as schools and health facilities haven’t. If we had working public schools and hospitals, we won’t be running to court to regulate anything. The super wealthy would take their kids to the few expensive private schools while the majority would be fine with public schools. The same with hospitals. The best way to regulate medical bills in private hospitals is by having effective public hospitals in adequate numbers to match the population. The private hospitals will then charge what is acceptable to stay in business. They would also improve their service to attract the super wealthy customers. The same would be for schools. Today, we have 529 members of parliament. The argument for the proliferation of political constituencies is to serve the population. Why don’t we flip the chart and ensure that before a constituency is set up, there is a proper well managed hospital and public schools to serve the increasing population? Do people want more MPs or more hospitals and schools? The money spent on a single MP every five-year term is enough to set up a hospital and a school in that area. If we invested in such for 10 years and then bring in MPs, the MPs wouldn’t have to buy 25-year-old Toyata Supercustom vans and paint them with a cross and the word ambulance. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Covidex and Kiira provide a case for indigenous knowledge investment

By Denis Jjuuko In many parts of rural Uganda, when people wake up in the morning, they grab some water in a small container and head to the kitchen where they pick a piece of charcoal from firewood used the previous night and then start brushing their teeth. If you have lived in urban areas all your life, you will be shocked by this practice. You will call these guys villagers, which they are and you may add that they are backward, which they might not be. Recently, multinational toothpaste conglomerates have started packaging charcoal-based toothpastes and they cost more than ordinary toothpastes. They also have packages that are labelled herbal. What do villagers know that urbanites don’t? Yet the reason most people in villages use charcoal and other plants to clean their teeth today is because they don’t have money to buy packaged toothpaste. For many years, we regard western products as superior and our indigenous ones as inferior. Ugandans on social media love coming up with memes with those in English or have western names as superior and those in local names or languages as inferior. We abandoned our indigenous knowledge in pursuit of products whose intellectual properties we don’t own. How do we return to indigenous knowledge in making our products? Last week, the National Drug Authority (NDA) under enormous public pressure approved Covidex, a herbal drug said to provide relief to COVID-19 patients. Covidex was developed by Prof Patrick Ogwang at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) if you ask one group. Another group will say Prof developed it on his own. Whatever the story, it shows that it is time to invest more in our indigenous knowledge. Covidex is said to be largely from a tree known as Mukuzannyana/Mukuzannume or Warbugia Ugandensis. The tree has been around for generations and has been used to treat respiratory ailments but we hadn’t done much to exploit it before. There are hundreds of other plants which are medicinal and used to cure people before western medicine took over. Had Covidex been made elsewhere, NDA wouldn’t have perhaps taken the path they took to authorize its use. If Covidex continues to do its magic against the monster that is COVID-19, it presents a case for much more research and investment in indigenous products. However, even if it doesn’t, it provides a case for more research and investment in indigenous knowledge. Before the Bazungu turned up in Uganda, people knew and had developed expertise to deliver babies through caesarean births using local brew as disinfectant among other innovations. Today, we even import some ingredients for sanitizers! If we are to succeed with the next Covidex, we need to significantly invest in research and development. We must encourage young people to innovate beyond the development of payment apps. It is not a surprise that Covidex has its origins at a university or developed by people involved in a university, just like Kiira Motors before it. Universities are centres where people dream and develop capacities to research products. Many innovative products (Google, Facebook, Microsoft etc.) start that way but we must be intentional about them by providing the necessary funding. Talking of Kiira Motors, as the country was consumed by the approval of Covidex and indeed the deaths as a result of COVID-19, there was a story that didn’t grab national headlines. Kiira Motors has entered into agreement to produce 1,030 buses for Tondeka, a company that wants to deploy them in Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA). The deal is financed by Rentco, an outfit that is involved in asset leasing and has worked on similar projects in Tanzania and Kenya among other countries. The automotive technology partner is Xiamen Golden Dragon, a Chinese giant that specializes in making buses. This partnership will lead to the development of our nascent automotive industry. Kiira Motors should now bring in its indigenous knowledge as it builds not only these buses but also its other products. What are those things that make a car truly Ugandan and we can sell to the world? How do we keep very old cars on the old and what kind of knowledge do we have that can make vehicles last longer? But for this to work, it means that there is need for much more effort to exploit indigenous knowledge. If you go to rural areas, parents immunize their kids with indigenous medicine. They cut kids on the shoulder (same area where jabs are administered for some vaccines) and apply it. How can we use this indigenous knowledge to come up with vaccines and other innovative products? The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Africa must industrialize or wait for COVID to decimate it

By Denis Jjuuko Less than 10% of 1.3 billion people in Africa have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The major reason is because Africa is comfortable with importing everything. We have never looked at ourselves as producers. So when COVID-19 struck, we didn’t do much, waiting for what the west would do. I listened to a government official say that the reason we don’t have enough beds in intensive care units is because they take time to be imported. We also heard that oxygen gas cylinders also take time to be imported. What do we make then? We are told repeatedly that Africa’s comparative advantage is in producing food. How much do we grow and how much do we import? Africa imports food worth US$35 billion a year and the figure is estimated to hit US$100 billion by 2030. So is this our comparative advantage as we wont to claim at each conference and in every little paper we publish? If we can’t even grow enough food for ourselves then what are we good at? We export the coffee and then import the dregs in the name of instant coffees that we proudly consume. Africa has a very young population compared actually to most other continents. This is the right age group to retool and ensure that they can take on manufacturing. Let us look at the automotive industry, which makes economies truly industrial. Annual car production pre-COVID-19 days is averagely 97 million cars. Of these 30% are made in China. China’s population is just 1.4 billion people, roughly the same population as Africa. Africa only produces 1% of the world’s cars. Does it then surprise anyone that when it comes to COVID-19 we are simply begging other countries? Look around, if the big pharma that have developed the vaccines tomorrow decided to release the formula for making them, shall we even manage to make them? Are we setting up factories that can even do contract manufacturing? What makes it so difficult to assemble an ICU bed and its accessories? The reason is that we are extremely comfortable importing every little thing. Africa’s businesspeople are essentially importers. Flights from Africa to Asia are always full of people on trade excursions. Many, after a long day’s work and relaxing in sauna brag about the number of containers they are shipping in. Not containers of machinery to make the products at home. Why should a businessperson import goods for 30 years without trying to make that same product? The Chinese from whom the Africans import stuff simply study these traders and then come to Africa and set up factories to make the stuff the Africans have been importing for decades. The Africans then run to the media to cry that the foreigners are getting incentives and are undercutting them. Why should the government not give factories owners incentives? Drive around the entire country and ask who owns the new shinny mall or apartment block and then ask who owns the factories, the answers will be different. We have failed to build capacity in making products and we have left that role to foreigners. The foreigners will also build stuff that may not be strategic for our country. The government needs to get involved in manufacturing again. The structural adjustment programmes of the 1990s that led to the government abandoning manufacturing and being involved in business was a mistake. It is time for the government to go back in there and look at the industries that many other people may not want to invest in because of money and long period it would take to make profits and take them on. Its involvement in Kiira Motors is a good start. Cuba, a small, impoverished island has developed a COVID-19 vaccine that is more than 90% effective. Africa is yet to come up with one, 60 years after gaining independence. When COVID-19 first struck, most African leaders created theories about the weather and a youthful population. When Merinda Gates argued that Africa will be severely hit, African elites went on social media and attacked her instead of planning for a pending crisis. Today, we are holding national prayers to pray COVID away! African leaders love guns and military hardware but even those they gladly show off during Independence Day celebrations are mainly imported. And they are usually second or fourth hand. Why don’t they start making them here on the continent? Many of the most important innovations we have today were originally invented for the military. The telephone, internet and even drones quickly come to mind. Africa to develop and solve the challenges of our time must industrialize. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Subsidize charges for patients in ICUs in private hospitals

By Denis Jjuuko There is a hospital in my neighborhood that is usually not very busy. Over the last few days, you can see people getting their intravenous treatment in the parking lot. The hospital is near a popular bar, if you are not a keen observer, you may think that the vehicles parked alongside the road are for the bar patrons. Yet the bar is closed. The cars belong to patients and their caretakers. Another photo trended over the weekend over a guy on oxygen as he sat in the car. I am not sure where the photo was taken but I wasn’t surprised. Pharmacies in Wandegeya have queues that rival those of young people lining up at offices wherever they have heard of a job opening! The real COVID-19 wave is finally here. Every day, you hear of somebody you know who has died. It is gloom everywhere. However, I believe this is the time the government should take the bull by the horns. Vaccinations There are very many people right now who are interested in vaccines and the government officials must be working the phones to find them in the required quantities. We made some mistakes by ordering a few the last time out. It is time to have them now available in the required quantities. And when they are available, they should have them available everywhere just like those of polio and measles. Members of the G7 meeting over the weekend pledged to give out a billion vaccines to developing countries. The Ugandan leadership should ensure that we are on the priority list with the right quantities. It is time those responsible for managing the country showed what they are made of. Those responsible for communication need to double their efforts too to ensure that the right messages are widely available. Tests On average, on the fliers I am seeing, the cheapest COVID-19 test in Kampala is Shs70,000. Assuming the average Kampala household has six people, that is Shs420,000. This doesn’t include the transport to the facility or the transport for the health worker to come to your home. Some facilities are charging Shs200,000 for a PCR test! That would be Shs1.2m for a household. These amounts are out of reach for most people. This means that many people who need to be tested will not go for tests. They will resort to taking each herb that is being circulated on social media. The health cost of steaming and taking all sorts of stuff people are selling in the name of a cure of COVID-19 is going to be very high. Yet last year, people like Alibaba founder, Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma donated lots of test kits. What happened to them? The government should come in and subsidize the cost of tests so that those who need them can have them. They can also widely offer them for free by setting up testing centres everywhere. COVID-19 tests shouldn’t only be for those going to attend parliamentary meetings. Home based care The Ministry of Health has come up with a treatment regimen that people can order over the counter in pharmacies for those suffering from mild COVID-19. Such drugs include azithromycin, amoxicillin and zinc among others. The cost of these drugs is high. In some of the pharmacies in my neighbourhood, a 20-tablet pack of a combination of zinc and vitamins D and C is being sold at Shs45,000 while a dose of azithromycin is at Shs12,000. I saw people paying upwards of Shs200,000 for their COVID-19 patients. I must admit that the cost might be lower in some parts of Kampala such as downtown Kampala but you get the drift. Again, government must show leadership and subsidize these drugs they are recommending people to take at home. They can also make them widely available for free. A simple database linked to the national ID can be created to ensure that people don’t take more than at least one dose to ensure equity. Subsidize ICU charges in private hospitals Without the private hospitals including those owned by religious institutions, Uganda’s healthcare system wouldn’t be worth the ink of this article. Intensive Care Units in private hospitals are charging an arm and leg. I wouldn’t call them greedy like most people are doing because the owners instead of investing in apartments like most Ugandans with money, they went into healthcare. Without them, we wouldn’t do much. Some acquired loans at more than 20% per a year to get the beds and equipment. So as businesses, they want a return on their investment. Who would blame them? Government however can subsidize what private hospitals are charging COVID-19 patients and even those suffering from other diseases. The beds aren’t too many and government can easily pay some of the bills for such patients. The same can be done for those in High Dependence Units. Government can pick the allowances of healthworkers in private ICUs and HDUs, supply medical oxygen, and such other stuff. The government cannot watch as families sell all their assets to clear bills for people who have even died. Sometimes the assets sold aren’t even enough to clear the bills. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 24, 2021