#OutToLunch The pitfalls of a culture of pretending to work and pretending to pay

By Denis Jjuuko

Over the weekend, I entered a furniture shop in Kampala and I was blown away! I had come in with my cousin to look for a gift for somebody. What we wanted was something small but they say curiosity killed a cat! After not getting what originally we wanted, we started moving around hoping something would catch our eye.

The more we moved, the more we realized that we were in a wrong shop. Some furniture looked nice. Others looked too extravagant and wondered what all the fuss.

Then I moved to a corner to see more furniture. Even though the prices I was seeing were out of this world for me, I hadn’t prepared to see what looked like a wrong figure. In the corner, there was a set of sofas with a matching dining set. They didn’t have all the unnecessary ornaments I had seen on some other chairs and I actually liked them because they were not too decorated with all sort of stuff I had earlier seen. They looked like furniture you can love.

I could see a price tag and looked at it for a few minutes. I thought something was wrong. The price was Shs150,900,000! I moved closer to be sure I am seeing the figures correctly and that was the price. I smiled wondering who buys such furniture in poor Kampala!

When I posted on my Facebook account, many people like me where surprised but many others said they too had been to that shop and had the same questions. Others even mentioned people’s homes where they had seen such furniture. Of course there are places in Kampala that sell a bottle of beer at Shs12,000 and that too surprises many people.

Anyway, we had entered the shop towards their time of closure so I hang in a bit to see how workers were driving out. Indeed we were the last people to leave and as we were walking out, some of the workers were leaving too, jumping on boda bodas and I saw one negotiating taxi fares with a conductor and only succeeded at the second attempt. I wondered how a sales agent selling furniture at Shs150 million can then be negotiating taxi fares. Are businesses exploiting workers? I wondered whether such an employee caters for the business or they are simply there because jobs are scarce. Do they even love what they do? What is the impact of low pay to the business?

Poor pay was largely more associated with public service but is this creeping into the private sector?

When we walked into this shop, the sales agent didn’t come running to us to ask what we needed. They seemed disinterested. Maybe they know their customers so well that we looked exactly who we were — “window shoppers.” When I saw them at the end of their shift, I realised it may have been a motivation issue but this is a private business that has been in existence for years. Maybe their model works.

In many countries, the private sector has always been the epitome of excellent customer service.

But then we moved to supermarket just across the road and the workers went out of their way to see if there was anything we liked. The comparison of workers in a shop that sells stuff at Shs150m and another for every day products stayed in my mind for a while.

I remembered a story I read somewhere that a public servant had told a visiting UN agency director that at the office where they work, “they pretend to work since government pretends to pay them.” The result is poor performance and in places like health care facilities, it leads to mortalities.

Even though the government is focusing on increasing pay of scientists, if salaries aren’t evened, others will “pretend to work.” One of the challenges in public health facilities is for example infections that are a result of cleanliness. What will happen to cleaners when their salaries are ignored? Aren’t we going to see more infections? Will accountants and other administrators not considered scientists be motivated or they will process millions as payment for their scientist colleagues and then rush to the taxi stage to negotiate fares?

This is a trap that government must avoid. Huge disparities in payment will create unhealthy camps at the workplaces and lead to more people not working than working. Of course I am not saying that doctors should be paid same rate as cleaners but people in “non-science” jobs should be considered too. That way we will have people working and not pretending to do so.

The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Rampant unemployment is a key national security issue

By Denis Jjuuko The public service ministry recently announced that more than 40,000 people applied for 287 jobs across different government ministries, departments and agencies. More than 28,000 of those who applied qualified, meaning they were selected for aptitude tests which were to be held at the Mandela National Stadium at Namboole. It must be frustrating looking for job in Uganda. The news came after a bombshell report emanating from research by the Inspectorate of Government (IG) and the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC) that indicated that Ugandans pay a whopping Shs42.34b annually to district service boards to get jobs. Averagely, the report indicated, 130,000 people pay bribes to land jobs. The people who ask for these bribes know that the jobs are scarce and people are desperate and willing to do anything to land the jobs. When somebody who bribed their way to a job gets employed, it means a few things. First, the person is not the best for the job. They just had the money to pay a recruiter. The best candidate may not have had the money and therefore wasn’t considered. Because the person knows they only got the job through bribery, they will continue bribing their way into senior positions. That is how we end up with incompetent people in positions of authority. People who can’t execute anything and making sure things don’t work or looking at everyone who is competent as a threat or what people call work politics. The people who are competent end up doing very little at work so that the incompetent boss doesn’t feel insecure and threatened. That is how we end with yes people—they won’t advise their bosses. They will do whatever the boss wants whether it makes sense or not. Remember, there are no jobs and these people have families to feed. Rocking the boat isn’t something that they want to do. Second, the people who bribed their way to jobs will only hire those who pay them a bribe. That way you end up with a corrupt layer at every level and an incompetent lot everywhere. Service delivery is impacted. Government then fails to create jobs that young people can apply for and get on merit. Third, because the public service is corrupted, the private sector suffers too. People can’t start and run businesses professionally. The people who are in positions because they paid a recruiter will endlessly try to get a return on their investment (read bribe). Procurement processes will be compromised. Payment for services and goods delivered will be frustrated unless somebody is paid. The bribery doesn’t end at public service. We recently saw many statements from politicians who lost elections for positions in their political parties claiming their rivals won through bribery. Some wondered why people were bribing for positions that were actually “voluntary.” We hear that candidates for Members of Parliament in some constituencies spend more money than they would get in the five years they would spend in the office should they win. If somebody spends more money than they would be officially paid, it means they are doing so to illegally get something. Somebody who sells their house to get money for election will do anything to get their house back. That is how we end up without jobs and seeing young energetic people leaving the country for the Middle East not to do highly technical jobs but menial ones or being trafficked for sex like we recently heard from a BBC investigation. Government has been saying that they are intending to grow the economy to US$500 billion annually. Great stuff but with rampant corruption, it will be a tall order. There is a need to nip corruption in the bud in order to create sustainable jobs for the working age population. Otherwise, we shall continue to see thousands of people filling up soccer stadiums to apply for a few jobs they know they stand no chance of getting. That is what they call desperation. And desperate people can do pretty much anything. Unemployment ends up being a key national security issue that the government must urgently address. The public have a chance to play a key role here by voting people in 2026 not because they bribed them with a t-shirts or some cheap alcohol but those who can address the challenges they face such as unemployment. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 13, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: What employees should know before launching a side hustle

By Denis Jjuuko On Friday 29 August this year, I was invited to speak to the staff of Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) about side hustles for corporates during their end of month Fireplace session. The Fireplace is an internal meeting where guest speakers discuss various topics every last Friday of the month. Here is an abridged version of my presentation. I believe others could find an interesting thing or two. In August 1972, Idi Amin launched his so-called economic war which led to the expulsion of Asians. In the months that followed, Uganda experienced unprecedent inflation. With the economy in free fall, many workers realized that their salaries were no longer sufficient. At Makerere University, the country’s premier higher institution of learning, professors took to driving taxis to supplement their income. One professor, until recently a minister in Museveni’s government, was the taxi driver. His colleague, an education professor, was the ‘turn boy’ or conductor. Others became teachers in secondary schools. Their wives turned the garages of their residences into unofficial canteens. Amin’s economic war led to the birth of side hustles in Uganda, where employees do something outside their official jobs to supplement their incomes. The importance of side hustles was further cemented in 1990s when the Structural Adjustment Programme led to thousands of people losing their jobs. Recent mergers of government agencies (rationalization as they call it) and closure of funding organizations like USAID continue to make employees think of life beyond their offices with polished floors. So, if you are thinking of starting a side hustle, what key things should one think about? Here are a few points to ponder. Time: Side hustles for people doing 8-5 jobs should not be too time consuming. Get a hustle like buying and selling land, flipping houses, buying and selling cars, bonds and unit trusts (if you can call them side hustles), or even supplies. Bars, salons, and restaurants require a lot of time when starting which you may not have as you have to concentrate on your job as well. Also, workers in such sectors are unreliable. You don’t know which day they will not turn up. Or when they will sell a crate of beer and replace it creating an impression there are no customers. Still, you don’t want to stay awake in a kafunda so that a few men not eager to get home can finish their beer and leave to enable you close the day’s operations. Cash payments: Avoid side businesses where most of the payments are made in cash. You don’t know when the workers will disappear with it. Most side hustles are small and may not have systems to protect revenues especially in the beginning. Side businesses where people pay in the bank are better. There you can protect your revenue. I know there are mobile money payment codes these days but there are still a few issues with them to be fully embraced. Small is beautiful: All business plans show profitability at one stage. Also, however much research you do, there will always be stuff you will only learn when doing the business. Start small and allow yourself to learn the trade. Don’t throw all your life savings in a business at the beginning. Don’t borrow to start. If you are to borrow, maybe from family. Start with your savings or pool money with others. Six months rule: Before you quit your job to fully concentrate on the side hustle, instruct your bank to send 100% of your salary to an investment account or unit trusts or bonds. Don’t touch this money. Now, see if you can rely on the side hustle for six months. Pay all business and personal expenses from the business. That way you will know if the business is profitable or if you have been subsidizing it with your salary. That way you will avoid looking for a job a few months of leaving one. Do what others are doing: Your side hustle doesn’t have to be innovative or ground breaking. Do what others are doing. See a sector you can invest in, where you can easily raise start up capital and get going. But run it better than others. Ground breaking ideas can then be implemented when you have money you can afford to lose or can raise the required capital from angel investors. Cashflow is the lifeblood of business: Look for businesses which have good cashflows. Planting trees that mature after 20 years should be for people investing for retirement. But doing something that brings in money regularly helps keep the business operational without necessarily relying on the salary or salary loans. Do people need to do typical side hustles? Should everyone do business? There is no clear answer. One just needs to find a model that works for them. Apart from some telecoms and banks, many businesses in Uganda that publicly publish their returns show net profitability of around 10%-15% annually. This means that an employee who invests in treasury bonds or unit trusts is likely to earn the same percentage without any hustle of running after the ever-elusive customers. It can also be a strategy of accumulating capital to venture into capital intensive side hustles that don’t require a lot of time like real estate. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

September 25, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Unambitious delayed projects, potholes creating a self-doubting population

#OutToLunch: Unambitious delayed projects, potholes creating a self-doubting population By Denis Jjuuko A few years ago, I used to frequent Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital to largely attend meetings at the African Union headquarters. If you kept away for a few months, you would return to a city that you wouldn’t recognize. A new flyover would exist within a few months. You would see people laying down railway lines and find these huge buses providing public transport. Addis Ababa in the mid 2000s was a construction site that was turning slums into hotels of certain status and other infrastructural projects. They seemed to deliver their projects without much delays. One thing I also noticed about Ethiopians is that they claimed to have the biggest everything. A cab driver or a university professor would quickly tell you that they had the biggest market in Africa — the Merkato, equivalent of our Owino. They claimed they had the largest number of cows on the continent, biggest airline, largest number of producers of leather products and coffee, biggest army and even the most beautiful women. Although some of these claims may be true and others could be debatable, Ethiopians have come to believe that they have to do the biggest things. And they go ahead and do them. Just the other day, Ethiopian Airlines launched perhaps the biggest hotel in Africa. Ethiopian Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa boasts of 1,024 modern rooms. That is perhaps why they decided to utilize River Nile a little bit more, they didn’t go around building a 100 Megawatts dam. They went for 5,150MW. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that was launched a few weeks ago is, true to Ethiopian style, billed as one of the largest infrastructural projects on the continent. And like roads and railway lines in Addis Ababa, the hydroelectricity dam, which cost US$5 billion to build was completed in 14 short years. It had many challenges such as protests from Egypt over the use of River Nile — like they do whenever anyone else wants to use the Nile waters as well as funding, technical skills and even bloody wars. But the project never got derailed. Compare it to the Grand Inga Dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo, perhaps the world’s wealthiest country, and you will understand what I am saying. Or just look at some of the countries where it takes a year or more to build a single kilometer of a dual carriage road without interchanges and bridges. To build the GERD, Ethiopia got most of the funding from local contributions in form of donations, and selling of bonds locally and to Ethiopians in the diaspora among other sources. They got very little foreign debt to achieve their project which ideally should ensure affordable electricity access to many people in Ethiopia while exporting some to neighboring countries thereby getting much more foreign revenue. Ethiopia is not some country in America, Europe or Asia. It is actually considered part of East Africa and a mere two hours by air from Entebbe. They face similar challenges like us. Wars, famine, draught and diseases among others. Like Uganda, they are landlocked and depend a lot on agriculture. In fact, we have just toppled them as the largest coffee exporter on the continent. They still produce more coffee though only that they consume a lot of it domestically. Since we are so similar and ideally neighbors, what do they have in their DNA that we don’t? How can they run an airline with more than 150 aircraft while we struggle with about six including leased ones? How can they build flyovers in Addis in months while we take decades to complete ours? Or build small hydroelectricity dams with defaults while they complete mega ones? There is a need to dream big by technocrats and be intentional about building a culture that leads us to achieve our targets and on time. We can have as many patriotic lectures as we wish but if people are driving over potholes every day and have them normalized as the way of life, we won’t achieve more ambitious targets like GERD. We will end up with a population that self-doubts itself. Businesspeople will not dream of creating mega factories or big businesses. Their ambitions will remain importing a few containers from China, driving an old Landcruiser, building a storied house in a slummy area, and another in the village and a few apartments. An ordinary Ethiopian seeing the country launching GERD or the largest hotel on the continent will dream of something as big. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

September 25, 2025