March 27, 2025 – Prime Time Communications

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: If girls can learn to shoot a gun, they can learn to code too

By Denis Jjuuko A young girl in a school uniform surfaced on a video over the weekend. Perhaps in the lower ages of her teens, she walks majestically in an open field. It is some kind of event. The person on the microphone is ecstatic. The crowd is roaring with joy. They have probably seen this girl before do some performance. Whoever is shooting the video only focuses on the teenager. It is not clear where the video was taken but somewhere in Africa. Somebody said it was South Sudan. When she reaches the middle of the field, she confidently picks up one of the deadliest weapons ever made — the AK47 gun. She points it in the air as if she is going to shoot but she doesn’t. She instead starts to disassemble it. The crowd roars at every part removed. Within no time, she re-assembles the AK47 gun. The crowd has never cheered like this before. Her mission is done. Puts the gun down and walks away. The video ends there. I would have wanted to watch more to get the context of the entire event and what drives an entire country to gather to watch teenage school girls disassemble and reassemble automatic assault rifles. Is it about defending their country which in most cases means keeping politicians in power? Is it self-defense? Or building a significant base of future innovators that can go make better guns than the AK47? Unfortunately, it was hard to get answers to such questions from the video clip. But it keeps one thinking about the education policy of some of these African countries. Previously, African leaders had such courses branded patriotism and empowering the masses to defend themselves. The gun, particularly the Ak47, had been used to terrorize people and there was a need to demystify it, the African leaders argued. They enrolled thousands of post-primary students in such courses. The countries remain largely poor decades later. I am not so sure how long it takes to teach a kid how to learn the intricacies of assembling an AK47. It must be some good training and some good resources. Military trainers, securing a suitable venue, guns, bullets, and all that. And then much more money to organize the “graduation” event where the learners showcase their impeccable skills with the AK47 and perhaps other types of guns. The majority of these AK47 graduates will most likely not finish their formal education like is the case in Africa. Very few kids who enroll into primary make it to university or other tertiary institutions. Many actually don’t complete their secondary education. And looking at that girl in the video, perhaps the only skills she will ever have are those to do with the AK47. What is she going to do with such skills? Unless she joins the military, she may end up in a militia that seeks to topple those who trained her or into some law breaker of repute. There are many 21st century skills that young girls need to acquire ahead of learning how to shoot a gun. Digital skills are crucial to make young people competitive and if they can learn to assemble a gun, they can learn to code too. They are more likely to earn better coding than shooting guns. They are more likely to contribute to the development of their countries with digital skills than impeccable gun skills. That doesn’t mean that there is no need to secure a country but that should be left to those who are recruited into the armed forces. The majority of people don’t need military education. They need skills that can land them jobs to feed their families, pay taxes to run the country and ultimately fulfil their potential. The politicians need to think beyond themselves. Look at South Sudan where the video is said to have been made. Two old men can’t control their egos so they decide to fight each other instead of using their massive natural resource endowments to create a prosperous country. Countries don’t develop because the masses can shoot a gun. They do when the masses have skills necessary that make them competitive in the world. Imagine if that girl instead of an AK47, she was displaying coding skills?

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Amalgamate saccos to provide women with patient capital

By Denis Jjuuko On 8 March, Uganda marked yet another women’s day. Several activities were carried out. High profile people gave lofty speeches once again. Promises were made. As is always the case in Uganda, group photos were taken. Meals I believe were served. And of course, some dancing. Reminders must have been made of what has been achieved and how grateful the women should be. But the majority of Ugandan women probably didn’t even notice the day. They were too busy eking a living or trying to survive to even notice. Women emancipation is still a pipe dream for many. There have been a lot of emphasis for women empowerment and some milestones have been achieved. Still, more needs to be done. One key area that can transform women’s fortunes is formal education. Averagely, the more educated one is, the higher the chances of better incomes whether as a salaried person or through entrepreneurship. There is usually some talk on education or the lack of it where many people point to one successful entrepreneur without formal education and present it as standard for wealth creation. Those outliers will always exist. Even among those with high formal education qualifications, outliers exist. But the majority of people without formal education don’t earn better than those with formal education. Many studies have been done on this by institutions like the World Bank. Households, communities and governments must ensure that girls stay in school for as long as possible. The minimum education should be completion of secondary education. Educated girls will value education and therefore will ensure their children go to school too. They will most likely not give birth to 10 kids they can’t look after. They will not easily think that the only pathway to success is marriage. And they won’t look at bride price as the route to their own success as parents. That way they will avoid becoming grandmothers at age 35. Formal education should be complimented with regular refresher courses on emerging issues. Today, everyone is talking about artificial intelligence and how it is disrupting everything. How can ordinary women get basics on artificial intelligence that is relevant to the work they do? Is there artificial intelligence that is relevant to a market vendor? Let them know about it. Digital training is necessary from time to time. Look at WhatsApp and its potential to connect millions and provide access to markets at almost no cost. Women leaders at the lowest level can be empowered to pass on skills to their people on what is working and how they can use emerging technologies for their own good. But so are a plethora of other applications that can enable people connect, promote their enterprises, seek for work or workers. There has always been a lot of talk on access to capital for women in entrepreneurship or to pay for needs such as school fees for their children. Some programs exist in that regard but sometimes the conditions are never favourable. High interest rates and short loan periods making it hard for women to borrow money to grow their enterprises or pay for their needs. Many women don’t own land which is the most common asset they can offer as collateral to banks and other lenders. Many women have had to rely on their own collective savings or saccos which lend at rates even higher than commercial banks though without the burden of collateral and paperwork. And lenders have observed over many years that female borrowers usually pay back more than male ones. A case, therefore, exists for a more long-term fund for women to access patient capital at low interest rates with less paperwork. Alternatively, how can many of the thousands of women saccos be amalgamated into a fund that has the organizational and operational capacity to provide fellow women patient capital? The Bank of Uganda and the government can guarantee the members protection of their money by providing oversight and insurance, similar to what they do with commercial banks or depositors’ money. The money raised by these saccos could be invested and the returns used to create an endowment fund that lends patient capital to millions of women. Women empowerment would move from being part of beautiful speeches and footnotes of studies into something ‘tangible’ that can truly transform the lives of the majority of women. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: High temperatures and what districts could learn from Buganda

By Denis Jjuuko Kampala used to be known as the city of seven hills but that was long ago. As the city expanded, so were the hills. If you get a chance to stand at the top of some of these hills, you will see many more hills in now what is considered the greater Kampala metropolitan area. Many people are increasingly settling onto these hills. It can be spectacular and probably a future source of tourism revenue for enterprising business people. All they need is a good high-rise structure on which telescopes could be mounted for people to see what Kampala has got to offer. The problem though is that some of these hills may end up embarrassing us. Take the example of a hill that you face when driving from Masaka to Kampala. Around Maya, you will face the Nsangi hill, full of houses that explain our lack of proper planning. One house faces this side, another faces the other side. One is multi-floors and another is the size of a poor man’s single room hut. But they all have one thing in common— a lack of trees. At least the original seven hills that formed Kampala have lots of trees. The ‘new’ ones? Something needs to be done. They were all originally well treed. Then land entrepreneurs showed up with graders. Cut down the trees and subdivided the hills into plots measuring 50×100 feet in size or less. They heavily advertised them as “organised” housing estates. Kampala’s middle class rushed to acquire them and started competing on who puts up the ugliest structure. Some built houses almost the size of the entire plot leaving absolutely no space to plant a tree or even some grass. The hills have ended up of what one once called a concrete jungle! Outside Kampala, forests were cut down for timber and charcoal and we didn’t think much of replacing the trees. Certainly, we had never heard of sustainable logging. Deplete everything and blame some faceless mafia. The trick works on the masses. That perhaps explains the high temperatures we are experiencing in Kampala and across the country today. If you drive through the countryside where the significant majority of the population depends on rainfed agriculture, a hunger crisis looms even though this is expected to be the dry season. Although harsh weather events or even changes in the climate that affect Ugandans can’t be entirely blamable on Ugandans, there is much that we can do ourselves. One of the easiest things to do is planting trees, many of which wouldn’t require much effort to grow. Perhaps the tree should be one that offers benefits to people regularly such as fruit trees from which income could be derived. The people at the helm of Buganda Kingdom understood this and initiated a tree planting plan at every betrothment (kwanjula) and last funeral rites ceremonies and this could further be escalated by the district local governments. At least in urban areas, everyone who builds a house is supposed to have an approved architectural plan. Urban planners should ensure that each plan presented for approval has trees as part of it. And before occupation permits are issued, there must be trees already planted. When urban authorities visit rental properties to determine and/or collect property service tax, they should check whether the trees exist and if not, a penalty could be administered. The Uganda Revenue Authority could do the same when collecting rental income tax. Where commercial building in the city can’t have trees, they can commit to maintaining trees on the streets on which they are located or a nearby public park. Failure to do so, they would receive a penalty. Real estate dealers who subdivide land into the so-called organised housing estates would be required to plant trees along the main roads within that estate as part of their license and this could be done well before the land is sold. No trees planted; no land titles issued. The land registry would have to work with the district local governments on this. Those who buy the land would be required not to temper with the trees. They can only maintain them. Enforceable penalties for those who fail to adhere to this. Of course, for this to work, the districts and urban authorities would have to be intentional with supervision to ensure compliance. It should not be too difficult to enforce. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Give school buses same rights as ambulances

By Denis Jjuuko There is a primary school in Kampala whose bus is seen frequently in towns as far as Mityana picking up kids daily. Another Kampala school bus is seen every day in Entebbe picking up kids. To avoid Kampala’s crippling traffic jams, the buses arrive hours before dawn to pick up the kids so that they are in class on time. Sometimes, the kids are seen dead asleep as the buses maneuver the horrendous traffic jams. In order for teachers to maximise the children’s presence at school, they teach them till late, which means that the buses struggle to clear huge evening rush hour traffic jams to drop the kids at home. This means that the kids arrive very late in the evening yet they have homework to do and hand in the next day, leaving them short of enough time to sleep. This doesn’t only affect kids who live in faraway places from Kampala like Mityana and Entebbe. Those who live in Kampala face a similar problem. Vans pick them pre-dawn so they could do several trips picking up kids and dropping them. It is also common upcountry. I know somebody who lives in Bushenyi but his children attend a day school in Mbarara city. Where the kids are dropped off by the parents or guardians, it isn’t any different. For parents to arrive at work on time, they, too, leave home pre-dawn, drop the kids at school and then proceed to work. And many can’t leave their offices before 5.00pm, which means that they pick up kids late from school. I think it is against that background that the education policy review commission has recommended that schools should close by 3.00pm to enable children be children. It is a welcome idea that will see kids have time to play and most importantly have time to sleep and develop as normal human beings than programmed chips with the sole purpose of passing national exams. However, for this to work, there is a lot that needs to be done that the education policy review commission may not have talked about. The government must be interested in providing high quality education across the country. The only reason a Bushenyi parent may enroll a child in a Mbarara city school is because they are trying to provide the best for their kids. They have looked at what is available in Bushenyi and they think it is not good enough for their children. If the schools in their communities were great, they would have enrolled them there. In the area where I live near Kampala, there isn’t a single public school where I can enroll my kids. If I did, my consciousness wouldn’t enable me sleep at night. Yet in the last 10 years or so, more than five big private schools have been built by entrepreneurs. If individuals can build schools, it means government can build even more. With better public schools near where parents live, government can ban bussing kids across the city or from one town to another because there would be a good public school where kids can be enrolled. A parent living in Naalya would not have to send their kid to Lubowa by bus. However, they could send them there by private cars. This is the norm in some developed countries. In many countries, school buses are distinctively designed and painted yellow. Everyone will notice them from a mile away. They enjoy public transport lanes where such infrastructure exists and where it doesn’t, they are given the same road right of way as ambulances. That saves kids time being on the road for many hours. Distinctive buses would ensure our kids don’t have to be piled in Toyota Ipsums like grasshoppers and being driven dangerously in order to arrive at school on time. Uganda already owns Kiira Motors, which makes buses at their plant just outside Jinja. They can give them the order to make unique school buses and offer them tax free to schools with favourable payment terms. The income from the bus should also not be taxed to make it affordable. If a school doesn’t want to offer this service directly, they could make an arrangement with a third-party service provider. The buses would have to operate within a specific radius of about 5km-10km from the school to which they are attached to avoid the scenario where they pick kids from all over greater Kampala. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: With America freezing aid, Uganda should quickly utilize Shs14.6 trillion in unused loans

By Denis Jjuuko It is 10.00am somewhere in Abidjan or Washington. The boardroom is well set up. The temperature is on point, to use Kampala language, and with the press of a button, the microphones become red hot and the giant screen is switched on. In the room, are several government officials from Uganda. They are meeting executives from the African Development or the World Bank to convince them to lend money to Uganda to implement its various development projects that will improve people’s livelihoods and catapult the country to some level of middle-income status. The Uganda delegation did their homework as exhibited in the colorful spreadsheets, graphs and photos in the presentation. Using persuasive language, the Uganda delegation is making an impassioned plea to the lenders to advance the money as soon as possible or else millions of people will become poorer than they are today. The executives from the lending institutions nod their heads. The Uganda delegation has been impressive. It doesn’t surprise them though. These are some of Uganda’s brightest minds. They know their stuff. They are passionate about their country. The only thing missing is money. You know, some people say money is not everything, it is the only thing! If the money is advanced, the country would indeed consolidate the gains made already over the last few years. At the end of the question-and-answer session, the lending executives propose a break followed by a breakout session for themselves. The Uganda delegation can wait a bit in the executive lounge as they take in the executive views of the city and catch up with their families and work emails back home. Within a few minutes, the lenders have made a decision and have called the Uganda delegation back to the boardroom. The Uganda delegation is a bit anxious but they know the loans will be advanced. The lender is also in business, they will be earning interest. The problem is usually on interest rate, loan period and payment terms. Small issues that could be easily agreed upon. Anyway, in the boardroom, the lenders agree to advance the loan. Terms have been easily agreed upon and with consultation back in Kampala, the agreement will be signed within a few weeks. Indeed, the loan agreement is signed and the lenders advance the money. All is good for Uganda, right? Not really. And that is where as an ordinary Ugandan you should get concerned. According to the Auditor General’s report, Uganda’s unused loans have jumped 12.95% as of June 2024 to a monstruous Shs14.6 trillion. Yep, Shs14.6 trillion or nearly US$4 billion. In the last six years up to June 2024, Uganda has been spending a cool Shs78.2b annually on such loans. That is some Shs469 billion on unused loans. Yet many infrastructural projects such as roads are stalled because, we are constantly reminded, that there is no money. Projects that would have been completed on time take years because there is no money yet we have Shs14.6 trillion in some bank vaults waiting for us to collect and pay off contractors. Suppliers to the Uganda government have had their assets sold by commercial banks because we have failed to pay their invoices. Their workers have become unemployed. Kids’ education has been affected. The suppliers can’t be paid but Shs14.6 trillion of loans is not being utilized. If projects are not ready, why do we go and beg for these loans? At least if we don’t get the loans we are not ready to utilize, we would save Shs78.2b annually, which we would use to work on our projects debt free. How can a poor country be enriching the lenders? Imagine a businessman who goes and borrows money from a commercial bank and then leaves it there while paying annually to have the money on their account and not utilizing it. And then that businessman wouldn’t stop there, he would still go to another lender in another city and borrow and leaves the money on account unutilized. Imagine what would happen to that businessman over the years. Imagine if the Uganda government was a businessman, they would have collapsed already, assets sold on auction and the businessman dead of heart attack or somewhere in intensive care. Even though the Uganda government isn’t a typical businessman and can survive for years by borrowing money they don’t utilize, it will still affect it and more so the citizens. With the Americans freezing their aid, it is time the government of Uganda utilized the Shs14.6 trillion to spur economic growth. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: The time to throw away an apple for a kiwi after a single bite is over

By Denis Jjuuko We are living in a world where digital maps have become so essential. A tap on the app on your smartphone, like Google Maps, would tell you the route to use from one place to another, showing you the amount of time required per transport mode. When it comes to road transport by car, you will even see in real time whether there is traffic jam or not. These apps are not without challenges. Sometimes they can take you through a back route or recommend roads that long closed depending on how the mapping was done. Nevertheless, these apps are really handy. However, even when the app or even people direct you to wherever you are going, if it is a government of Uganda facility such as a local government office, there is usually one significant indicator that you have arrived. And it is the number of vehicles and equipment rotting in the compound. Some of these vehicles and road construction equipment look new or still in fairly good conditions where they may have needed some minor repairs. It talks a lot about wastage. If we can’t repair or maintain vehicles and equipment, maybe they should be sold off before they are declared scrap so government can get some money back. Or if the project for which some of the equipment is intended isn’t ready to be implemented, there is no need to procure the equipment in the first place. And it isn’t just vehicles and road construction equipment only that these are the ones that welcome you to a government facility. If you enter the building, depending on what they do, there will be equipment being neglected. If it is a hospital, it could be some laboratory or theatre equipment. A computer that has been abandoned. Chairs that are repairable but being piled in a corner somewhere and providing 5-star residence to rodents. Then meetings don’t start on time or rescheduled without informing those who are supposed to participate. One drives hundreds of kilometres only to be informed on arrival that the meeting won’t be taking place some times for flimsy reasons such as taking children back to school. Time and money wasted, which means that something that was supposed to be done will have to wait. Some times the waiting takes years. If you have a non-political case in court, you know what I mean. This modus operandi of some of government officials is going to face its limits. We have learned that the United States that funds a lot of government activities or those of NGOs that compliment government efforts has announced a review of its foreign aid for at least 90 days. It is not clear what will happen after or within 90 days but life may not be the same again especially for ordinary folks without the resources for example to buy lifesaving drugs. Three months is a long time when you need a pill a day to survive. It is not clear that Europe won’t do the same. It is not only people who depend on the services offered through aid such as antiretroviral drugs that will suffer. Businesses will close. Hotels that survive on NGO workshops, Nasser Road printers that rely on NGO work, transporters taking staff to the field, consultants and researchers and lots more will face it rough. The value chain of foreign aid in Africa is significant and affects almost everyone without access to the public till. African economies will have to stop behaving like a rich man’s child who eats an eighth of an apple before throwing it away to eat a kiwi. They will have to understand that if they throw away the apple after a single bite, there will be no other fruit to eat. In fact there will be nothing else to eat. It is time African governments realized, like a child who was throwing away the apple for a kiwi, that their father was simply a beneficiary of some benevolent man and that man has decided to cut off the flow of funds. Going to school is no longer possible by chauffeured SUVs. It is time to join the rest of the kids to walk to school or beg to occupy the kameeme — space behind the driver in the vans that work as commuter taxis in Uganda. Many people can’t afford that adjustment but there is no choice. It is time we stopped the wastage, nipped corruption in the bud, developed and implemented policies that enable the private sector to thrive and wean ourself off foreign aid. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Treasury bonds, unit trusts provide pathways to real estate and business capital accumulation

By Denis Jjuuko Many people in countries like Uganda have no pension or any form of retirement savings. Like we saw during the pandemic, most people are a missed payment away from poverty. It probably explains why some people especially in public service are said to be swearing affidavits to lower their age. The thought of retirement sends a chill down their spine. Some have trauma from their past experiences as children of people who retired to poverty in the 1990s following massive retrenchment. It could also be one of the reasons for the rampant corruption in Uganda today. So, it is always refreshing when a debate on where to invest comes up. Like it has been over the last few weeks on the social media platform X. The issue of debate was whether people should invest in real estate, treasury bonds, bills and unit trusts. Some said real estate (rentals) and others were in for treasury bonds, bills and unit trusts. Others said let people do business. This is a good debate that gives people options of where to save and invest and avoid the YOLO (you leave only once) mantra that some young people subscribe to. YOLO is a one-way ticket to poverty during retirement. Uganda has one of the world’s youngest populations so to tell them to invest for retirement sometimes looks and sounds extreme. If somebody is 25 years old, they look at retirement at age 60 which is 35 years away as something that can be handled at a future date. The challenge is that if you start saving and investing for retirement at age 45 or 50, you will have to put aside lots of money every month. If you start at 25, you can put small amounts aside which grow into something huge over time. It is what some people call the snowball effect. Long term treasury bonds (10-20 years) return an average of 14 percent per a year while bills and unit trusts return around 10 percent annually in net income. Real estate may also be around 8-10 percent annually but in gross income. These returns are sometimes discouraging. The proponents of business say the returns are so low in real estate and bonds. Those who propose bonds and unit trusts argue that it is net income and therefore very few businesses make such net profitability. The real estate advocates talk about appreciation. All those arguments are probably correct. The issue is that many people usually have more money on them than they need that they aren’t investing anywhere. And if that money is available and accessible, it is easy to use it on stuff that are not that critical. I have been to places where strangers have bought me drinks just because their favourite team in the English premier league has won a game or the one, they hate has been defeated. There are even people who dress up nicely, go to a bar, sit down and drinks are sent their way by strangers. Although that may make life interesting and worth living, it isn’t because the majority doing so have a lot. Many have no savings and sometimes are the ones claiming that they have nothing to save or that 10% interest annually on Shs1m is so little. For many people, Shs1m is also little to start a meaningful business. What do some people do? Eat it. If you are a young person and your dream is to invest in real estate, one of the easiest pathways is through bonds, bills and unit trusts. Let us make some assumptions here. Suppose you need Shs10m to invest in a plot of land where you will build rentals, it may take you a long term to have that money as a lump sum. But if you invest Shs100,000 every month and that money grows at about 10% annually, you will hit the target in 6.5 years. You would actually have Shs482,000 more. If you wait to have a lumpsum of Shs10m, you may take forever to get it. Same model can be used to raise business capital. Most Ugandans who invest in real estate do so over a long time but in a way that sometimes doesn’t make them money. They start building with little money and spend years building incrementally. Bonds, bills and unit trusts could still be an alternative using the same model mentioned above. Instead of starting construction with little money, they could invest it over time and withdraw it when it is significant enough to complete the project. That way, construction doesn’t become a lifetime drag. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 27, 2025