January 9, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup great opportunity for Ugandan workers

#OutToLunch: Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup great opportunity for Ugandan workers By Denis Jjuuko On a recent flight to Entebbe, I met a sizeable number of travelers who were, by their conversations, Ugandans returning from some Middle Eastern countries where they are deployed as largely domestic workers. Many were returning home I think either for Christmas or their break after working for two years in the Arabian deserts. They were excited to be returning to their motherland. Before boarding in Doha where they were connecting from other parts of the Middle East, they called relatives who were to pick them once we landed at Entebbe. They spoke to each other very loudly. Their experiences, the type of bosses they had, who they wanted to see first once they are in Uganda, what they wanted to do and some who they wanted to fight etc. Unlike the flights from Entebbe to the Middle East, where female domestic workers dress in abayas that are of the same color and design, walk in line and politely as if they are about to receive the holy communion, this time they were on their own. There was no leader giving them instructions. The abayas had been replaced with skinny jeans, leggings and tank tops. Wigs or caps were now their preferred head gear. There was something about many of them. They didn’t have much regard to other passengers sharing the same boarding area spaces. I thought they were a little bit uncouth. But I was happy that they were returning home at least for their holidays and seeing their family after a few years away. Uganda, like many countries in Africa and even Asia, is a source of domestic workers for wealthy families in the Middle East. Uganda has a labour cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia. However, the labour agreement talks largely of domestic workers. Most of the domestic workers don’t have much skills and are therefore not contributing much to Saudi Arabia or learning a lot of skills they can use on their return home. I actually wondered how many of those domestic workers returning home will be able to do something else? Especially in situations where they won’t be able to return to their previously jobs in the Middle East. The majority will become poor again given the stories we hear of how relatives fleece them of the little money they make. But there is a great opportunity in Saudi Arabia that the Uganda Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development must take advantage of. Saudi Arabia, one of the biggest destinations for Ugandan domestic workers, won the rights to host the 2034 edition of the FIFA World Cup. Saudi Arabia is going to outdo itself in organizing this event. Of the 15 stadiums required to host the soccer extravaganza, only four exist. They are going to build 11 mega stadiums. They will build hotels, expand the airports, railway and road infrastructure. There is going to be a lot of construction in all the major cities. Remember, the Saudis want to outdo Qatar that hosted the last world cup. They are also on a mission to take the limelight from Dubai which has seen unprecedented growth with their focus on building massive infrastructure projects that support tourism and business. Like Qatar, they will need workers to pull off their world cup dream. Skilled workers or those that can easily be skilled. First, workers will be needed at the construction sites. Engineers, masons, surveyors, accountants, welders, project managers and the lot that works on construction sites. Secondly, they will eventually need workers to manage the infrastructure. We have already seen this in Doha. At the airport, the most common languages among workers are Luganda and Swahili. In hotels, it is the same. But because we are not very strategic, many of our workers are supervised by Indians and Filipinos. How do we get our people from lowly to middle and high-level jobs? They will need to be skilled. Some of the domestic workers could be moved to work in hotels. They can start as room service attendants and those who become good at it, will eventually become supervisors and managers. That way they will learn specific highly needed skills that can be very helpful in our tourism and hospitable industry when they eventually get tired of working abroad. Some may even invest here in small bed and breakfasts or restaurants. Engineers we send will gain experience in doing mega infrastructure projects. Welders will gain specific skills that are so needed here. Some may become partners or build businesses in Saudi Arabia just like Jews and the Dutch did in New York. However, this won’t happen on its own. We must now lobby the Saudis to take on our people beyond domestic work. I understand that there is a lot of argument against youths being shipped out to work abroad but there is absolutely nothing wrong with migration. Everyone is a migrant. If the jobs are in Saudi Arabia, let Ugandans go. The Ministry of Gender should not miss this golden chance of Saudi Arabia hosting the world cup. They should turn their domestic labour agreement into a general labour agreement to support the 2034 world cup. That way, the conversations of workers at airport lobbies will eventually be different. Happy 2025. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

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Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Opportunities for young people in the forthcoming political season

#OutToLunch: Opportunities for young people in the forthcoming political season By Denis Jjuuko Just like that, we are in 2025. It was just the other day when politicians were all over the place, crisscrossing our beautiful country telling stories and endearing themselves to the voters. The season for political stories is here again. With general elections set for early 2026, those vying for various offices are already making alliances, breaking off some and ensuring they are in our faces. It is plausible that politics is one of the most paying jobs in Uganda and there are many positions to vie for. From parish level to the presidency. In between, the most clamored is the position of Member of Parliament followed by that of District Chairperson (LCV). Thousands of people will campaign for these positions. Because the monetary reward is allegedly huge, many candidates will not leave any stones unturned. They will spend the money leaving some on the verge of bankruptcy but for purposes of this article, that should not be ‘our’ problem. As a young person, perhaps without the resources to compete for political office, how do you benefit from this political season that comes once every five years? By positioning yourself for some of the opportunities that come with political campaigns. So let us look at some of the areas where young people could make some money from politicians. Graphic design – Every candidate will have to create a master artwork of their campaign. In Uganda, this largely means a portrait of a candidate with a few words like unity, peace, prosperity, development and all those things politicians say but don’t mean. You don’t need to be a super talented designer here. Just download Canva and start designing. The paid version will do wonders for you. It costs less than 400,000 a year. But the money is in printing. You could even offer to design for free as long as they give you the contract to print the posters, calendars, flyers etc. they will be displaying in every little trading centre. For those who have mega resources, you could also print for them the cheapest of t-shirts with the thinnest microns in their party colors. Photography – As faster affordable internet spreads across the country, many people have smartphones and are able to consume content online even in some of the remotest villages. Crowds at campaigns help sway public opinion about a candidate. But crowds at campaign rallies are only important for a politician if they are captured on camera. Photographs and videos are going to be important. You will need a drone camera to capture this content so it can feed the candidate’s social media channels. Social media manager/influencing – Many political candidates are old school and social media disturbs them. You can manage the social media channels of the candidates, curating content and manage the accounts. TikTok which may not have played a key role in 2021 is going to be critical in 2026. So, ability to create compelling videos will be necessary (learn how to use KineMaster, CapCut etc.). Candidates will want to be on TikTok alongside other platforms particularly X and Facebook especially for those in urban constituencies and at the national level. WhatsApp will be another one. Learn what you can do with it for your client. Sound system – Music plays a key role in political campaigns. Many times, political candidates have moved with musicians who work up the crowd before they appear. Some like President Museveni even did some rap song an election or two ago. You don’t necessarily have to be a musician to tap into this. You can own the sound system that the politicians are willing to hire from you. You could also be the link between musicians, dancers and all those people that entertain crowds at the rallies. Communication strategist – Some candidates especially in urban big constituencies and at the national level will need experts in communications to help them put their messages across, schedule media interviews and support the communication aspects of their campaigns. Many candidates especially those joining politics for the first time and not used to media interviews, coaching and preps will be required so that they don’t simply go and mess themselves up. The communication strategist will work hand in hand with the digital and social media team mentioned already. Research assistant – Those vying for the presidency will require some researchers on their team even though it is an important role for other candidates too. For example, a researcher would inform the campaign strategy team on the messaging in particular areas and finding information that empowers the candidate. They could manage polling to assess the candidate’s messaging, popularity and help the campaign make informed decisions. Lastly and most importantly, many politicians are known not to honor their word. Make sure you get some advance payment for the work being done. Wishing you a happy 2025. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

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Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Deputy Speaker’s Mangu Cash experience and the need for an open discussion on interest rates

#OutToLunch: Deputy Speaker’s Mangu Cash experience and the need for an open discussion on interest rates By Denis Jjuuko Somebody I know wanted to capitalize his business and decided to approach one of Uganda’s biggest commercial banks. When his business was booming, he had built some houses in Namugongo, not very far from the famous Uganda martyrs’ shrine. Four houses on about 15 decimals of land. The houses, each two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and dining rooms were occupied by tenants each paying Shs1m per a month, totaling a gross income of Shs4m per a month or Shs48m per a year. He was willing to stake it as collateral for the loan. The bank sent their prequalified asset valuer, one of those companies that manage Kampala’s elite malls. The moment he signed the form that authorized the bank to pay their valuer Shs3m for the exercise, they showed up promptly. Within a week or so, the bank called him and handed him the asset valuer’s report. The report indicated that an empty plot of land in the area of the same size was valued at Shs100m. But then something strange happened afterwards. The asset valuer said that the four houses were valued at Shs120m on the open market while putting the forced sale value at Shs80m. He protested the bank valuer’s report and asked if the bank could send another valuer who knows what they were doing. The bank said they trust their valuer with their life and there was no need to send another valuer. He wondered if in their own wisdom they really think the houses that gross Shs4m a month, Shs48m a year could really be worth 20m excluding the land and they said that is what the valuer’s report says. He walked out of the meeting protesting and cursing them for making him lose his Shs3m while enriching an incompetent valuer. He called it a scam. I am not sure it wasn’t. I wouldn’t have believed anything he said had he not turned up with a copy of the report for me to read. May be the bank didn’t want to lend him money or something. It just didn’t make sense. Anyway, two things happened a week or so ago that explain the predicament of Ugandans when it comes to credit. There is a new law that limits interest rates charged by informal money lenders at 2.8% per a month or 33.6% annually. Currently, money lenders charge as much as 12% per a month on loans advanced. Such money lenders include mobile money companies. The money lenders’ association chairman argued Uganda is a free economy and parliament should put such restrictions on money from government. Not on his private money whose source they don’t know. Many people after borrowing this money fail to pay. You have to be a money launderer or thief to borrow money at 10-12% per a month and be able to pay it back but people are desperate. And the money lenders are even more desperate to get their money back. One such desperate lender called the Deputy Speaker of Parliament on Thursday morning and threatened to teach him a lesson if somebody he knew didn’t pay. The Deputy Speaker said on his X social media handle that the caller identified herself as an employee of Mangu Cash, a mobile money lender that advances micro credits to millions of Ugandans via their mobile phones. The Mangu Cash lady said the borrower had listed the Deputy Speaker as his next of kin. He tagged the police chief to do his job and stop such people from harassing Ugandans. The next day, the Deputy Speaker posted about regulation and all sorts of things that he is going to do after realizing that this wasn’t an isolated incident. I don’t know how many times Mangu Cash and a few other such lenders have called me about people I don’t even regularly speak to about their obligations to pay back. I have been blocking whichever such number that calls me since I was never involved in the first place when they were advancing money. Many people have complained about their modus operandi. But I don’t think they are the problem. If regulated credit institutions were not taking clients into circles before lending them like they did to my Namugongo friend (he didn’t actually borrow), the likes of Mangu Cash would not exist. Their existence shows the gap that needs to be filled. If the Deputy Speaker is desirous of doing something about credit in Uganda, he needs to look at the whole picture and find ways through which credit can easily be affordable and accessible to the majority of Ugandans otherwise informal lenders will just go underground and make the situation worse than it already is. An economy where interest rates are as high as they are by even regulated lenders cannot spur sustainable growth The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

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