August 2021 – Page 2 – Prime Time Communications

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Parliament, graduation and the opportunity for entrepreneurship

By Denis Jjuuko Last month, newly elected Members of Parliament took the oath of office at the parliamentary building in Kampala. Save for the elbowing co-wives and the clown from Arua, there wasn’t so much else. The majority of MPs and their relatives were elegantly dressed and they rocked the red carpet in the way it should be. I hope that the quality of debate will be as elegant as the dresses. However, something else caught my eye. Many of the MPs turned up with children below the age of 10. Since many of these MPs didn’t look like grandparents, I will assume that these were their offspring. The spectacle at parliament reminded me of some statistics that were being widely shared before MPs took oath. A recent population projections report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) showed that 56.7% of Uganda’s population is below the age of 20. While those between the age of 20 to 29 represent 17.8% of the population. The MPs themselves largely fall in the age group between 30 and 50, which is 17.7%. No wonder many turned up with their offspring toddlers. Given that many of the MPs will see a significant increment in their monthly income over the next five years, many will be giving birth to a few more children. Besides MPs taking the oath, my social media timelines were filled with beautiful photos of young people in celebratory mood having been awarded academic certificates at the latest graduation ceremony at Makerere University — the country’s premium academic institution. Most of these young people are looking forward to a future that can enable them live the lives that they have been promised — study hard, graduate and everything will be fine. It used to be fine in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, these young people need more than academic certificates. The beauty though is that many of them will try as much as possible to get themselves where they want to be whether as maids in the Middle East, boda boda riders in Kampala or part of the government bureaucracy. Some obviously will end up as MPs. A young population as Uganda brings many challenges for the legislature and executive as they must find the jobs for those graduating and services such as education and healthcare for the children. This doesn’t mean that those who are above 50 should be ignored. MPs must not just look at themselves as they have largely done before. They were elected by young people to represent them and it is incumbent on them to think about the country first as the oath they took implied. They should also not forget that over the last few elections, the majority of MPs aren’t re-elected. The chances of being one-term MPs are high. As the arms of government grapple with those challenges, these statistics present opportunities for entrepreneurship. I know that the majority of the population live in abject poverty but there is a number that could afford certain services if priced right. Entrepreneurs should think about services that can attract this population group because 80.7% of the population is below the age of 35. If you started a business today, you can find affordable labour that is easy to skill given the number of people graduating. This can be a springboard for profitability and future growth. Government can use the numbers to attract foreign direct investment. Those interested in long term investments could think of the category that was graduating last week (age 20-29). As these people find the elusive jobs, they will most likely start by “dusting themselves” of poverty. They will go for expensive brands to show that they have arrived. Entertainment will boom and there will be little left for investment. The time for seriously thinking about investment will come when they are about 35 and above. When they have children of their own and some dreams long discarded as reality checks in. If you, therefore, invest in stuff that the middle class will need in 10 years, you will make a killing if you are a long term investor. Sectors such as housing, education, and transport will be necessary as these people become middle class. As they become middle class, another group between 40 and 60 which is 10.8% of the population will be either retired or retiring. They will have some retirement benefits that as an entrepreneur you may tap in. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 23, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Climate smart interventions will protect our investments

By Denis Jjuuko I recently visited one of the ‘resorts’ on the shores of Lake Victoria. It used to have a sand beach with grass thatched canopies where the resort’s patrons sat and sipped cocktails with exotic names. Revelers in bikinis used to roll in the sand in the name of sunbathing. The lake waters seemed far away and provided beautiful backdrops for those taking selfies without sophisticated filters. About a year ago, torrential rainfalls washed away the sand beach leaving wooden canopies almost submerged. The patrons, when I visited only sat far away from the water, watching a lonely fisherman on a canoe, where the beach used to be. You probably remember seeing images of the owner of a popular Munyonyo bar accessing his premises in an old fridge disguised as a boat. Whenever it rains, Kampala’s roads get flooded creating unprecedented vehicular traffic. However, it isn’t only Kampala with such problems. Roads in many parts of the country have been washed away by rainfalls disrupting travel and other activities. Culverts and bridges have been washed away. About a year ago, the Packwach bridge over the Nile was impassable because of rising waters, technically cutting off West Nile from the rest of the country. This week, I heard stories of somebody who woke up in the night, grabbed a basin and started a tedious job of fetching water from his bedroom. Storm water had found its way into the house. He should thank his lucky stars for being a light sleeper. There was a joke last year that a renown Kampala businessman was the luckiest man alive — he could catch fish from his living room. This was after his palatial home on the shores of Lake Victoria was submerged in rising Lake Victoria waters. The torrential rains and rising waters are partly a result of climate change. Our planning and implementation at all levels, therefore, should include climate smart interventions to protect our investments and most importantly lives. Would a culvert being built today be able to contain increasing water flows during its planned lifespan? How will harsh weather conditions affect a newly built road? These infrastructure projects cost lots of borrowed money. Today, newly built infrastructure such as docking points for ferries are being submerged by rising waters on our water bodies disrupting businesses and becoming risks for travelers. In Kalangala and Bukakata, passengers have to remove shoes to access the ferries or walk a tightrope on curbstones. Uganda is rapidly urbanizing with one of the world’s fastest growing populations. The pressure on land is massive while at the same time urbanizing areas generate tons of solid waste. Most of this waste isn’t properly disposed of thereby blocking drainages and leading to flooding of urban areas. Urbanization in poor countries is a known cause of informal settlements and slums where climate smart interventions are hard to implement. This is set to increase the spread and burden of diseases on individual households and the public. Greater Kampala where new housing estates are being haphazardly planned is a disaster waiting to happen. These housing estates have been left to private sector players to develop. To maximize revenues, they are parceling out land and creating slums for the ‘middle class’ at unprecedented levels. The estates haven’t been designed with climate change in mind with narrow roads and zero spaces for drainages for storm water. Many perimeter walls being built around houses today won’t be able to last for long given our lack of planning for harsh weather events like torrential rainfalls. The circular economy is partly a solution to solid waste management. How can we re-use and recycle most of the stuff we use? Our homes are generating a lot of waste which can be used for biogas production. But like you saw recently in a trending video, the rich have no problem driving their fancy cars and stopping somewhere to drop domestic waste by the roadside. Poorly managed solid waste is not only blocking water channels, it is polluting the air that we breathe. Already Kampala has one of the worst air quality in the world. An increasing population is going to make it worse. Electric vehicles and mass transit systems are part of the solution. At individual, community and government level, there is need to build climate resilient cities by putting in place intervention that can mitigate climate change and its effects. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 23, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch A factory in every town will complement the markets that have been set up

By Denis Jjuuko In Soroti, in an area full of shanty buildings with rusty iron sheets stands a majestic building that could be mistaken for a modern shopping mall. The architecture is quite impressive for the town’s (or is it city) standards. As I wonder who could be putting up this shopping mall and whether Soroti can sustain such an investment, my eyes land on the signage. It is the market being built by the government of Uganda. I am actually impressed. I have been to many major towns or cities where such markets have been built but the Soroti one stands out. Not in size really but in ‘modern’ aesthetics. The government must actually be commanded for such markets. Vendors won’t have to suffer selling stuff in filthy conditions. Rain is no longer an issue as it previously was. Customers now have parking and such other amenities. I hope that those responsible for these markets will take great care of them. These markets are mega in size and in some towns like Moroto, they really stand out as the biggest building in the area. This means that the government didn’t spare any coin in building them. However, when you visit these markets especially in parts that aren’t dealing with fresh produce and vegetables, you realize that most of the stuff being sold are imported. If we can build markets this big, we can also build factories. In all major regions of the country, there is a product that can be made. This depends on what the particular region is known for. This would add value to the products, give them a longer shelf life and create thousands of jobs in each region. Young people wouldn’t have to think that they have to migrate to Kampala to make it in life. Businesspeople in upcountry towns won’t have to think like many of them do now that to become truly successful, they must own something like a hotel in Kampala. Since we import stuff as easy to make as tomato sauce, we can add value to these products and reduce imports while at the same time earning more from exports. The government simply needs to identify and focus on one major factory per a region or even town. When you get to have major factories in a particular area, other businesses actually are set up to either feed that factory or to make complimentary products that factory needs. Factories also need spare parts, service and maintenance so entrepreneurs in machining and milling will set up shop. One major factory in a town would lead to unprecedented development in the area. Housing, education, entertainment and recreation, health care, financial services and even super markets would set up. Instead of the mega markets that have been built selling imported stuff, they would be stocking lockly made products. The farmers would have better returns on their harvests since there would a be factory taking their produce. Traders wouldn’t be so worried about selling their stuff before they go bad. Young educated people wouldn’t be lining up in queues that stretch a mile at the Ministry of Internal Affairs to get passports so that they can become maids and nannies in the Middle East. They would remain and work here at home and gain invaluable skills. There aren’t many skills one gets in being a house maid. Yet some of the factory workers and their managers as well as entrepreneurs would look at the factory’s value chain and invest in smaller factories, creating more jobs. Logistics businesses such as transporters would also grow moving raw materials to the factory and then taking out the final products to the market. The markets in their current form are good and necessary but they should be complimented by government setting up major factories in the regions so that traders stock less of what is imported, give farmers more value and create a value chain that would significantly lead to development. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com *Photo of Moroto Market

August 23, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Katikkiro Mayiga’s focus on people paying off

By Denis Jjuuko Soon after his appointment as Katikkiro on this day in 2013, Owek Charles Peter Mayiga traversed the vast kingdom to see first hand how the majority of Kabaka’s subjects were fairing. Many of the people of Buganda had given up on life, folding their arms and having no qualms about their state of affairs. This was not going to turn around their fortunes. In private conversations and public speeches, Mayiga talks about poverty as a challenge that needs to be solved. Nothing is as shameful as poverty, he usually says. Yet as he crisscrossed the kingdom he was now in charge of as Kabaka’s most senior lieutenant, he saw how enthusiastic people were to embrace his projects and support them from the little they had. However, the statistics were not good. Uganda’s Robusta coffee exports were slightly over 500,000 bags of 60kg a year. More than 65% of Robusta coffee from Uganda is grown in Buganda. He had grown up with a father who grew coffee and his school tuition partly paid by the sales from coffee. How could a region known for coffee not be growing it? Many farmers had given up and selling land to do other stuff considered most lucrative. Young people were happy to spend a day sleeping on their newly acquired boda bodas as they waited for elusive customers. He knew that after some internal realignment, creating a smaller but efficient government at Mengo, his legacy wouldn’t be entirely in glass paneled buildings like Masengere or even endless perimeter walls on tombs. He knew that the Kabaka as modern as Ronald Muwenda Mutebi is can’t preside over a kingdom of extremely poor people. His thoughts run back to his childhood, seeing how his father looked after a large family with proceedings mainly from coffee. If it worked then, it must work now. With other kingdom officials and working with the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), he folded his sleeves, wore gumboots and went to work. The reward has been immense. According to UCDA, in February 2021, Uganda’s Robusta exports stood at 500,685 bags of 60kg each with revenues of US$40.9m. What Uganda used to export annually, it now does in a single month. “The increment of Robusta exports is on the account of fruition of the newly planted coffee,” says the UCDA Feb 2021 monthly report. Overall, Uganda’s annual coffee export market (March 2020-Feb 2021) amounted to US$511.21m from US$74.9m in 2013, the year Mayiga assumed office. Although Arabica coffee is more valuable, Robusta is the dominant Uganda coffee type. Mayiga’s Emmwanyi Terimba (grow coffee) campaign is largely responsible for these new numbers. Mayiga didn’t stop at coffee. He reenergized the Kabaka Birthday Run that attracts pre-COVID crowds of upwards of 50,000 people. The proceeds directly go to people. Many women including non-Baganda suffering from fistula simply turned up at Kitovu Hospital in Buddu for free surgeries and treatment. The next target was sickle cell disease, where the kingdom purchased millions of test kits among other stuff. Today, the focus is on HIV/AIDS given that the Kabaka is UNAIDS’ goodwill ambassador on HIV/AIDS. Working with Habitat for Humanity, a global brand known for building houses for the vulnerable, the kingdom has been able to build houses for the very poor. Five houses are now complete and have been handed over to the poor. Twenty houses are under construction this year alone. Kampala’s housing deficit isn’t only for the extremely poor. Many of Kampala’s dwellers, as beautiful as you see them on Kampala Road, live in squalor conditions. Decent housing is out of reach for many. The deficit stands at 550,000 and estimated that in 20 years, the national housing shortage will stand at 8 million units. Of these 2.5 million will be in urban centres. Kampala’s shortage will have doubled to one million units by then. Although it may sound like a drop in the ocean, Mayiga and his team have embarked on an affordable housing estate in Ssentema, on the outskirts of Kampala to change this narrative. A one-bedroom house is going for a jaw dropping Shs58m, previously unheard of in Kampala. More than 100 units have so far been built with many under construction. Similar projects are planned in Mpigi and Masaka. Before that, he had decided to launch Ekyapa Mu Ngalo, a campaign to turn unregularized tenants on Kabaka’s land into landlords with leasehold titles. Mayiga’s focus on the poor has also seen him using the stage he has to advocate for human rights and good governance. He is almost a single voice on this. This has attracted all sorts of attacks from many centres. Some see him as too critical of the establishment while others argue that he isn’t critical enough. Unknown to many, that is exactly what Mayiga intended — a kingdom that isn’t in the armpit of any politician. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 23, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Buvuma Island is the next frontier for long term investors

By Denis Jjuuko Traffic is building up as many people mill around the shores of Lake Victoria. A few boats are back to the landing site with the night’s catch. Traders from Kampala and Mukono are haggling for the best fresh fish. Those who are happy to have made a good bargain smile in anticipation of huge profits. A boda boda man is trying to fit a Nile Perch, the size of a teenager, on his motorcycle. It is Kiyindi in Buikwe District. Kiyindi is a landing site on the shores of Lake Victoria and the main gateway to Buvuma Islands. It is located a few kilometres off the Mukono-Njeru road. When the Jinja Kampala Expressway is constructed, as long as there is an interchange somewhere, Kiyindi and by extension Buvuma Islands will be very near to Kampala. By ferry, Buvuma is approximately one hour from Kiyindi. A new ferry is being built by the National Oil Palm Project (NOPP) of the Ministry of Agriculture, which will further cut the duration of the journey by about a half since it is said to be bigger. For many years, Buvuma has been a backwater district devoid of any meaningful development. The main economic activities have been small scale fishing, hand hoe-based subsistence agriculture, and charcoal burning. All this is changing as growing of oil palm is being extended there. Pathways have been graded into motorable roads and many people are now being employed in growing oil palm. There is unprecedented enthusiasm on the main island. Recently, the government has been buying land from willing sellers to establish the oil palm project, the second after Kalangala District. Before the growing of oil palms, an acre of land cost approximately Shs500,000. That figure has since grown to averagely Shs10m for prime land following land acquisitions by the government for the oil palm project. With household incomes set to grow and given the infrastructural developments in the area, Buvuma is the next frontier for those looking for long term investment. Buvuma, like many islands, boasts of kilometres of pristine sand beaches which could be developed into resorts, recreation centres, and/or holiday homes. Oil palm estates like in Malaysia and Indonesia can also provide another tourism attraction if packaged well. Palm oil is the most versatile vegetable oil in the world with many uses. But unlike Kalangala, Buvuma is so near Kampala and Jinja with a lot of potential for long term investors. Proposed infrastructure in terms of road and water transport will make it an island to die for. Investors could acquire land, a key means of production, when it is still affordable. Once electricity is generated, piped water extended, new docking areas built and factories set up for palm oil production, the prices will skyrocket. The government’s efforts to create a sustainable business on the island means that Buvuma District’s 90,000 population will have a lot of income. Unlike most other crops, oil palm trees are harvestable every 10 days once they reach maturity at about four years. A single tree lasts upwards of 25 years. The oil palm industry which is native to sub Saharan Africa is one of the major economic activities in Malaysia and Indonesia — the world’s leading producers of palm oil. Buvuma’s potential isn’t only in real estate and recreation. Banking and financial services, education, health and transport are among other sectors that are going to blossom. Factories to produce final products from palm oil can easily be set up. Leaders on the main island where oil palm project is being set up now need to embark on a campaign to change the mindset of the youth. In many parts of the country that are urbanizing, many young people simply want to fold their arms and wait for deals. They have watched a few people in Kampala that come on the scene driving fancy cars and throwing around money and they think that is the way to go — waiting for a big deal instead of working hard. As oil palm trees mature, households involved will demand for better standards of living. So, they will need better houses, cars, fashionable clothes etc. The youth of Buvuma who may not directly work in the oil palm sector should now acquire technical skills to provide the services. They can become mechanics, masons, fashion designers, electricians and beauticians among others. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 23, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch A generation of smartphone holders who can’t google is a danger to businesses

By Denis Jjuuko One of the most important discoveries of our time, is the internet. A resource that we use today to make our lives better in almost every aspect. It is perhaps the second most important discovery after fire. It has made many things possible. One needs acres of space to exhaust how the internet has made this life possible. From transferring money from one part of the world to another making e-commerce possible and cutting the costs of doing business significantly. But since the creation of the world wide web in the late 1980s, one of the most significant innovations has been the ability for people to search for information. In the modern era, search engines have been perfected to provide us with all the information we need on almost anything. People’s needs whether looking for information for academic research or buying some sweet corn, search engines provide this information at our finger tips. This is what has made Google a powerful tool and turned its parent company, Alphabet, the world unicorn that it is. Needless to say, that its founders have turned out as some of the wealthiest people in the world. Google with all its powerful algorithms doesn’t charge its users for search fees. All you need is an internet connection and bingo! Of course, you must have the ability to discern what is correct and what is not because search engines simply index information from millions of websites including fake ones. Of course, there is some effort to remove certain sites like those that promote terrorism from these search engines but largely any form of information you need is there. We live in the era of the smartphone, another very important tool that enables anyone to publish news whether fake or not. However, the most worrying trend in Uganda is the inability of diploma and degree holders to search for information to make right decisions. Sometimes a PhD holder in Uganda and a cart pusher peddle the same information without any ability to determine whether the news is fake or not. This is one of the reasons we in Uganda are poor — the inability to discern the information that the internet throws our way. Many Ugandans are easily conned by 419 scammers who promise them to have won lotteries they have never registered to participate in. Others lose money through pyramid scams that have been written about in other countries. This is a result of mainly our inability to search for the right information. If our businesses must grow and survive, we must fully understand the search element of the internet. Searching for opportunities and understanding the partners that we want to do business with. But if we can’t ascertain a business opportunity from a scam, we won’t be able to grow. Search engines can lead us to opportunities including new innovations. But do we know how to find this information? To separate it from the genuine and the one that isn’t so? When you look at how quickly Ugandans take in to conspiracy theories which all of them can be easily debunked through search, then you know that our businesses are in trouble. It may sound weird but our syllabuses at a certain education level should teach people how to search for the right information and perhaps that will help people make critical decisions based on the right information. Based on the information highly educated people spew on social media platforms, it is rightly possible that they are making decisions in their workplaces based on unverifiable information. This is going to make many businesses lose money. If a well facilitated highly educated employee who has access to internet cannot use search engines to verify information or even make a few calls but simply tweets whatever comes their way, how are they making decisions for the business? In Whatsapp groups of university graduates is where most misinformation is shared by people in critical managerial positions. How are these people managing the people below them? How can a university graduate with 20-30 years of working experience be so reliant on information that they can’t verify when they own a smartphone with data? Business owners and those at the highest levels must deliberately find ways to empower their workers so that they make decisions based on the right information. If you see somebody in a workplace Whatsapp group sharing all the fake news, know that they are making wrong decisions for the business. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 23, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Reintroduction of annual car license is counterproductive

By Denis Jjuuko There are new tax proposals for the next financial year that have caught the eyes of many. One is the introduction of a 12% tax on internet bundles. Apparently, the Over The Top (OTT) tax charged on social media isn’t that successful. Either the number of people who use social media had been exaggerated before the tax was introduced or there are many people using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the tax. But I guess everyone who is in the business of tax collection knows that for one to realize significant revenues, it must be easy for people to collect the tax in the first place. Once a tax is cumbersome to collect, the collector will face serious hurdles in doing their work. Also, people will naturally use such hurdles to dodge paying the tax. Yet the proposal to scrap the OTT tax I thought had taught our tax collectors some important lessons. In the same documents seeking to scrap the OTT tax, there is a re-introduction of the annual vehicle license. Many years ago, the tax collector rightly argued that collecting annual license fees from motorists was cumbersome and there were many loopholes. The right thing, the argument at the time went, was to put this tax on fuel. So every time you fueled the vehicle, you paid your annual license fee. This tax was easy to collect. It was cheap to do so as well. Instead of putting road blocks to check if cars had valid annual licenses, the tax collector simply ensured that petroleum companies remitted the money. There are fewer petroleum companies than vehicle owners and they risked being banned and their assets sold if they didn’t comply. Previously, many annual license certificates were made on Nasser Road while some people comfortably bribed those manning the road blocks. Although there is technology now to ascertain whether a license is genuine or not, I believe that Uganda doesn’t have the resources to enforce this kind of tax collection at the moment. Many vehicles on Ugandan roads aren’t road worthy or don’t even have the proper paper work like third party insurance but they freely move on the road. Many people in Uganda don’t have driver’s licenses. The police simply can’t fully enforce this. Uganda Revenue Authority’s law enforcement won’t be able to monitor the roads for valid annual road licenses. So if collecting OTT where technology can easily be deployed to enforce it has failed, how will the annual vehicle license be collected? Will the levy on fuel be scrapped? Or it is a case of double taxation? What has really changed over the last few years since it was scrapped that now it is important to put it back? How much will the government spend on collecting this tax? There was a time when telecoms charged monthly service fees. They realized that this was a barrier to entry for many users and scrapped them. They still charge us service fees but we don’t notice it as it is embedded in the airtime fees we pay. That way, they have been able to significantly grow the number of users. There aren’t very many vehicles in Uganda. There are less than 500,000 units. Outside a 100km radius of Kampala, you hardly see any cars on the road. The reason Kampala has a lot of vehicular traffic is because we don’t have public transport to write home about. The roads are potholed and narrow creating an impression that there are many cars in Uganda. On average each private car in Kampala carries only two people. Transport is a key factor that facilitates economic growth. The re-introduction of annual vehicle licenses will increase the cost of doing business thereby impeding other areas that URA should be keen to tax. When the cost of doing business is high, there are reductions in the income taxes that URA will be able to collect. Workers’ earnings will be cut thereby creating low purchasing power. With low purchasing power, the economy will shrink and the tax collectors will realize less taxes. The government’s efforts, therefore, should be on growing the economy and widening the tax base not to overtax the same things such as vehicles. Government should be interested in seeing that we have an effective urban public transport system that can reduce the expenses of workers so they can spend their savings elsewhere on stuff that keep factories running and shops open. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

August 23, 2021