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Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch No African country should be land locked

#OutToLunch No African country should be land locked By Denis Jjuuko There has been at least some good news this side of the world. Uganda’s oil is finally set to get out of the ground following the signing of the Final Investment Decision (FID) agreement in Kampala with partners committing to US$10 billion. Procurement of goods and services can now commence. There is a lot that has been pegged to this industry over the last many years and I hope that it realizes its potential and unlike many Ugandan projects, it is delivered on time. There was also the little issue of Rwanda opening its border with Uganda, which has been closed for at least three years. Many Ugandan businesses trade with Rwanda and the reopening of the border is good for both countries and the region. Although I am not sure what was the real reason for the closure, it is good that people can be able to move from one country to another again.Africa is home to 1.4 billion people, the same population as China but there are so many non-tariff barriers in place that hinder doing business. A spat between leaders of countries affects the entire region. Requirements for visas and work permits for countries that all belong to the African Union is a mockery of the body itself. Many times, Africans fly to other countries outside Africa where visas aren’t required or the process isn’t stringent than doing business with the continent. It is easier for a Ugandan to get a visa to Dubai or Turkey than to South Africa. So Africans take their money away from the continent because of such restrictions. Flying in Africa is one of the most expensive in the world and when you look at the air ticket, the biggest percentage of the cost for the ticket goes to taxes. Why do African countries make it so hard to fly from one part of the continent to another? Is it the mentality that flying is for the rich? I know the numbers of people flying might be low but then again isn’t it an issue of cost? If we make flying affordable, people will be able to fly and conduct business with one another. Kenya and Uganda usually squabble over whose goods are contravening regulations in another country. Quality is usually given as an issue though behind the curtain, the argument always goes back to who is benefiting from these barriers. There is always talk of about some of these African countries being land locked and how that curtails their economic progress. In the case of countries like Uganda, that shouldn’t be the case. Mombasa is just about 1,000km away from the Ugandan border and about 1,400km from Dar es Salam. That distance is so little to make a country like Uganda land locked. Investments in infrastructure and reductions in barriers that stop us from trading with each other would make almost no country in Africa land locked or lack a market in the hinterland. Just last month, procedures at the border in Malaba and Busia created an unimaginable fuel crisis in Uganda which will affect the economy for some time. Fuel prices are still high. Most of the tankers coming to Uganda and the region load the fuel a few kilometres away from the Uganda border. Why should they go through border clearance when they arrive at Malaba? Ugandan authorities can ensure that everything the trucker needs is done at the point of loading the fuel and then simply scan or measure at the border and trucks proceed. And this can be done automatically, so trucks don’t have to stop unless if there is a major reason that authorities should check for. Truckers carrying abnormal loads spend a few days at Malaba or Mutukula waiting for the clearance by the minister of transport before they access Ugandan roads. I believe that the construction of the oil pipeline and the central processing facilities will see a lot of importation of equipment and parts that transporters call abnormal loads and if they are all to be cleared by a minister in Kampala, this will delay the oil projects. The country has banked so much on oil that any delays will affect the delivery of the project. We can remove the barriers and make all countries in Africa trade with each other, access the seas and create meaningful jobs. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

March 9, 2022

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Rising fuel prices can be countered by electric vehicles

#OutToLunch Rising fuel prices can be countered by electric vehicles By Denis Jjuuko Fuel is the most common word on people’s lips especially in urban areas where motorized transport is the most used form of movement. Rural areas aren’t spared though. Moving produce to urban areas must be a challenge. Usually, trucks that bring produce to the urban areas return with essentials to the rural areas. Life must be tough everywhere.Some fuel stations in Hoima were said to have sold a litre of petrol at more than Shs10,000. I think this is the first time since the 2007 elections in Kenya where supply lines to Uganda were cut off due to the post-election violence that erupted that fuel has cost as much as or more than Shs10,000 a litre. This time though, the result isn’t a violence after an election rather our approach to testing drivers for COVID-19. Truck drivers went on strike than paying what they considered exorbitant rates.In Kampala this week, in the areas where I live, a litre of petrol is going for Shs5,000 and some didn’t even have. At some stations, people end up buying a litre of the premium types at Shs5,190 or more. Some organisations have advised their employees to work from home given the increasing cost of transport. Although the increment in prices has been solely blamed at the strike by drivers, fuel prices have been on the rise steadily climbing towards the Shs5,000 per a litre mark. I believe regardless of the strike, a litre of petrol will be selling at more than Shs5,000 before the end of 2022. Of the 6.5 million litres of fuel sold in Uganda every day, the majority of it is used in vehicles. This makes everything in the country expensive.Yet there are some solutions that can help address this challenge. Electrified transport especially in urban areas can lower the cost of doing business. This would call for the deployment of electric buses in the city. You need less than Shs50,000 to charge a bus for 300km. The cost of running a diesel bus covering the same distance in an urban area like Kampala is almost three times more than an electric one. Operators of public transport would actually make more money if they went electric. I have listened to testimonies by Kampala boda bodas who are switching to fully electric motorcycles. They say they make Shs11,000 more every day using electric motorcycles than when they used to operate ordinary motorcycles. That is when there isn’t even a single incentive from government to use cleaner cheaper motorcycles. Imagine if there were some incentives! How many public transport operators would be using electric vehicles?If enough reliable public buses were deployed in greater Kampala, many of us would abandon our private vehicles as they are costly to operate. Also, most private vehicles carry on average two people and are parked for the greater part of the day. Lack of parking in Kampala is another issue buses would solve. These buses as we have already seen with Kiira Motors can be locally built thereby not only solving the country’s transport nightmare in urban areas but also creating millions of jobs. Besides public transport, the government should offer incentives for people to buy electric and hybrid vehicles. Such incentives should be in lower import duty and other taxes so that we import less internal combustion vehicles that not only increase the cost of doing business but also destroy the environment. Not so long ago, Kampala was listed among the most polluted cities in the world. This is a result of our reliance on extremely old vehicles in a congested city.Incentives for charging infrastructure would then also be provided such as tax rebates for fuel stations, hotels, and shopping malls that install car chargers. More incentives can be provided for school shuttles and companies that transport students and workers respectively in electric buses. Companies can be encouraged to use electric vehicles for their city movement as well. The government can do the same for vehicles that are mainly used for city movement.The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development would then introduce an electric vehicle tariff similar to the newly introduced cooking tariff. You pay less for electricity for charging your vehicle. As fuel prices rise, given our generation capacity, the cost of electricity should be going down. Today, a big budget of many households in greater Kampala is on transport. Cars are expensive to buy and service and even more expensive to fuel every day. Money saved from transport would boost household incomes leading to more spending in other areas. That is how economies grow. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

February 9, 2022

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Mutebile’s death calls for reforms in housing, decongestion of Kampala

#OutToLunch Mutebile’s death calls for reforms in housing, decongestion of Kampala By Denis Jjuuko The death of the Governor of Bank of Uganda Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile brought yet another unintended but important debate – housing. A few days after his death, we heard that his widow alleged that the family, if they are thrown out of the governor’s official residence in Kololo, they would be homeless. Apparently, Mutebile had only built a personal residence in his village in Kabale. Mutebile died at 72 which means he spent at least 50 years working, 21 of which as governor of the central bank and many others in the lofty position of Secretary to the Treasury and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance. Governors of central banks are some of the highest paid people anywhere in the world. If Mutebile didn’t build a house in Kampala, he certainly didn’t need it or he knew that his benefits would enable the family to happily rent in Kololo for the rest of their lives. One of the roles of a central bank governor is planning. Planning for retirement or how your family will survive after your death is part of planning. But the issue of giving Mutebile the house in Kololo which was even discussed in parliament reminded me of the people perhaps at Mutebile’s bidding that were retrenched in the 1990s. Many left government houses into abject poverty and suffered miserable deaths after spending a few years reminiscing about the good old days. Before perhaps the mass retrenchments disguised as economic reforms, housing for many civil servants wasn’t such a big deal. It was a given. Jobs for people in key positions came with houses in many of today’s affluent suburbs. Most children of these civil servants went to affordable public schools. Today, to give your child half a chance in life, you have to put them in private schools that leave many in debt but then I digress.Anyway, after the retrenchments and privatization of parastatals, clever managers and politicians sold themselves the properties at give away prices. I hear some didn’t even buy. They just identified and occupied. Today, there aren’t many jobs that come with a house in the leafy suburbs. A permanent secretary in a ministry must have their own private residence and so is every official. The pressure for them to have a house that fits their status, a car that fits the status of their wives is enormous. The official pay is usually not much. Land and houses in greater Kampala are extremely expensive and very few people can actually afford them even though many are building. How they get the money to put up mansions is stuff of legend.For many workers especially men, a personal mortgage free house is a constant painful thought. Wives remind their men at every turn of the need to build and where they will leave them should they die. If Mutebile didn’t build in Kampala, he must have been a very stubborn man or had a tough skin that enabled him to withstand extreme pressure. So because people are generally poorly paid, and they are under constant pressure to build or buy houses in an expensive market, corruption and even pilferage by those in low positions become the order of the day. A man in this part of the world is only considered one when they have built. A measure of success for women today in urban areas is no longer marriage and raising well behaved children but ownership of properties. Yet at an average of 16 percent per a year, mortgages are out of reach for many people. Decent housing units are few and the country’s housing deficit stands at 2.1 million units and keeps rising. As the country urbanizes, the the demand for housing will also be increasing. In areas where land is still affordable, there is no infrastructure for people to easily commute to their workplaces. Efficient public transport is non-existent in such areas but so are other services like piped water, good schools and health services. So everyone gets crowded in the same areas which makes land expensive. Also everything in Uganda is around Kampala. A good law firm, a consultant doctor, cinema name it. Beyond declaring some backwater towns municipalities and cities, there should be deliberate effort to develop them so that entrepreneurs can set up some of these services. Otherwise people who have beautiful houses in places like Kabale will claim that they will be homeless once they are out of official residences in Kololo. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

February 9, 2022

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Getting pregnant girls back to school is the right call

#OutToLunch: Getting pregnant girls back to school is the right call By Denis Jjuuko Over the last two weeks, an estimated 4.5 million children who are supposed to be in school woke up to do something else, if at all. This represents 30% of school-going children who have abandoned school after the world’s longest shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic according to the National Planning Authority (NPA). A bleak future stares at these children and every effort should not be spared to have them back in school or at least to get some form of training that can empower them for a better future. Already, reports indicate that some of the thugs that were waylaying motorists at the Northern Bypass in Kampala were teenagers who have since abandoned school. The chance in Africa of landing a decent job is linked to education. The more education time one spends in school, the more chances of having a better job according to the Mastercard Foundation’s flagship Secondary Education in Africa Report. The report further reveals that of the 98 percent of young people who enroll at the primary level in sub-Saharan Africa, only nine per cent make it to tertiary education and only six percent graduate. This further shrinks the decent job opportunities for many of Africa’s young people. For Uganda’s adolescent girls who become pregnant, it is even worse. Two prominent religious leaders at the level of bishop in the Anglican faith have been shouting their voices hoarse insisting that they won’t allow pregnant and breastfeeding girls in their schools. The Anglican Church in Uganda is a major player in the education sector as an owner of thousands of schools across the country. Although their stance may be based on morality, Christian values call for forgiveness and rehabilitation. I believe the Church would be more enraged if all these girls had aborted. Since the Church is prolife, it is hypocritical to then deny these mothers an opportunity to study so that they can have a shot at a better life in future. At worse, they could have offered an alternative education platform where these mothers could study. I have been able to speak to some of these mothers before and many of these girls would prefer to go back to school. Giving them an opportunity to study is the right call. Facilitation of re-entry of adolescent mothers into schools is one way these girls can have a better future for themselves and their children. A better educated mother, studies show, is more likely to have healthier babies. Removal of policies that deter re-entry by these mothers as well as creating an environment that enables them to study is critical. Parents and guardians have a role to play here tooby meeting the costs of looking after these children and opposing options such as early marriages while pointing at the dangers of teen pregnancy and early marriages. Teachers should be equipped too on how to handle these young mothers and create an environment that eliminates the associated stigma. Although we hardly talk about the boys who impregnate these young girls, many also drop out of school as they are now expected to start looking after a family. Yet our primary and secondary education system isn’t fully programmed to provide the skills people need to find work. The highest level most people in Africa will ever attain is secondary education. We need to reform it so that by the time students finish secondary education, they have some skills that can enable them take on this world. Digital skills such as effective use of social media, emails and the internet, entrepreneurship, communication skills and business, vocational and technical (btvet) skills are some of the pathways that can help young people find meaningful jobs that can enable them live better lives. Of course, we must also encourage young people to focus on their studies first, and delay childbirth. They must understand the dangers to their bodies and education, and provide them with the information they need about their sexuality. We shouldn’t look at sexuality through immoral lenses; rather, as information young people need to make informed decisions. We must also dispense with a culture that looks at girls as sources of income in form of bride price as soon as they grow breasts. Parents and guardians must strive to get themselves out of poverty. The government must help them too by putting in place programmes that can genuinely uplift people out of poverty. djjuuko@gmail.com The writer is a communication and visibility consultant

January 31, 2022

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Subsidize electric cookers for Ugandans to enjoy new cooking tariff

#OutToLunch Subsidize electric cookers for Ugandans to enjoy new cooking tariff By Denis Jjuuko You have seen the photos. I think largely taken to trend on social media platforms. Kampala’s hot girls in the village for the holiday season trying all sort of styles to blow air in the fireplace to cook the food. Uganda largely depends on firewood as its source of energy. Using firewood in Uganda is the norm rather than exception. Of course in some areas, some other energy sources might be expensive or even non-existent but it is also the way we have lived since the days of Kintu or Gipir and Labong. We don’t seem to know any other way. When Ugandans migrate to urban areas, they adopt charcoal as their main source of energy for cooking. Truckloads of charcoal are delivered every night in Kampala. In the suburbs, trucks move door to door with young men shouting at the top of their voices of the availability of charcoal at what they call crazy prices. Many roadside entrepreneurs in the suburbs survive on selling charcoal. It is beaming business. In most of these households where charcoal is used, electricity is available too. The perception about charcoal is that it is a cheap source of energy. I think it is just a perception. The cost of charcoal is perhaps the same as electricity or liquefied petroleum gas. And obviously much more expensive than biogas, which we have failed to adopt in Uganda. I find charcoal too dirty to use. Cumbersome to use and like firewood, a big source of indoor pollution that according to the World Health Organisation is responsible for about 4.3 million deaths annually. Some of the noncommunicable diseases that are increasingly killing Ugandans are a result of this pollution. The cost to the economy is beyond measure. But talking about costs, the household loses money every time they use charcoal. There is no switch on a sigiri (charcoal stove) which you can control as you cook. Many times, once the cooking is done, the burning charcoal is wasted, which translates into money lost. Then many of the charcoal sellers today are unscrupulous. Many times, sacks of charcoal are packed with residual parts (olusenyente in Luganda) which is hardly usable unless you are using a much more modern electric/solar powered charcoal stove. I believe, for each sack of charcoal, a household loses 20% in waste alone. I will talk about the cost of air pollution and the dirt on another day. So I was delighted that the ministry of energy through the electricity regulatory agency has come up with a tariff to lure households to turn to cooking using electricity instead of firewood and charcoal. According to media reports, ERA’s new tariff guide, each domestic user will have 70 units a month each sold at Shs412Kwh down from Shs747.5Kwh. This, the ministry of energy believes will lead to more people using electricity to cook. The only drawback is that you can only get this rate if you have bought the first 70 units a month. The best thing would have been to let households use the units regardless of what one has bought in a month. However, it is a good start. This should be followed by reducing the taxes on electric cookers and microwaves so people can buy them. Of course many times in Uganda reduction in taxes doesn’t necessarily lead to low prices. Traders many times pocket the change. So the ministry can partner with some local makers of electric cookers to ensure that a certain type of cooker that is affordable is available on the market. This will create millions of jobs. Although the ministry has given out energy saving bulbs before and it might be difficult to give households cookers, having them available countrywide at affordable prices is one way to wane ourselves off charcoal and firewood and save what is left of our already depleted forests. A massive awareness campaign would then follow informing the public of the advantages of cooking using electricity and other environmentally friendly sources such as biogas. This is important because of the perception issue I mentioned earlier. Many of the people living in Uganda’s rapidly urbanizing areas are the first in their family to live in urban areas. So they migrate into urban areas and practice what they have seen their grandparents do. Of course we would need to perhaps adopt other methods like cooking more food than can be eaten at every single meal, store it and warm it up at the time of eating. The practice of cooking every one of the three meals a day separately increases our energy consumption. If you plan to eat beans three times in a week, the energy saving practice is to cook them at once and warm them up when meal time approaches. It would save time and money for the household. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

January 5, 2022

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: 2021 an eventful year that we can use to create real change

#OutToLunch: 2021: an eventful year that we can use to create real change By Denis Jjuuko In almost about two weeks, the year 2021 will close. It has been an eventful yet forgettable year. Covid-19 accelerated our lack of preparedness and killed many of our people. Like many people, I am struggling to delete mobile numbers of friends and relatives that passed away. Ugandan children continue to roam streets and village paths with many not expected to go back to school again. Some children have become parents of children. A lost generation awaits us. I read somewhere that we are the only country in the world with the longest shutdown of schools due to Covid-19. A fly on the wall tells me that the fat cats took their children to schools abroad as they advocated for increased school shutdown in Uganda. Those abroad educated children can’t ‘eat and finish’ this country. A fair shot at life for everyone should be our priority. I hope that we have used this time to refine our curriculum. The more poorly educated the youth are, the more likely they will become radicalized so that they can strap bombs on their bodies in return for some promised heavenly goodies! Lacking skills will only make them vulnerable. Like Covid-19 has taught us, the world will be for those who have some skills. However, many teachers will most likely not return to the classroom. They have found solace elsewhere and with uncertainties as new Covid-19 variants such as Omicron emerge, many will keep away. Already, sub-Saharan Africa had a 10 million shortage of teachers according to a detailed report on secondary education by the Mastercard Foundation. And that was before Covid-19. What numbers are we looking at today? In Uganda, salary increments for teachers have been promised to only those teaching science subjects. Sciences alone can’t develop a country. Arts are as important. However, whether arts or science, there is need to skill the teachers too to be able to teach stuff that are necessary in the 21st century. Some of these things like sending an email look basic but I have met teachers in this country who can’t send one. With appropriate 21st century education, Africa will create decent jobs for its young people majority of whom will have to survive on skills that aren’t being taught in most schools today. One of the challenges for Africa is its inability to create almost anything. African policymakers have been seen on television imploring the West for equity distribution of vaccines. Two years since the breakout of Covid-19, we are the only continent where we are depending on others for anything. We have had malaria for generations and we haven’t done anything in that regard too. Once the malaria vaccine comes out, we will quickly blame the West for hoarding them as they surely will. Of course there are some injustices that we can quickly point out such as colonialism like most politicians do, but with all the challenges we have, we have been independent for six decades on average. The best way to solve the challenges we face is by looking at what we can do instead of blaming others. In the same period, countries like the United Arab Emirates have tremendously transformed as we regressed. It isn’t about natural resources at all because we are more endowed than UAE. It is about our focus or the lack of it. Today, African policymakers are buying condos in Dubai. During this festive break, many alongside their relatives will be happy to take selfies in the Dubai desert admiring stuff they have the ability to create at home. Agriculture, which everyone touts as the sector where Africa has potential is still practiced in the same way as it was 200 years ago. Look at the dairy sector as an example. During the wet season, the farmgate price of a litre of milk drops by more than half, creating more misery for the farmer. The price of inputs doesn’t go down. We haven’t learned to add value. Our great grandparents not as educated as we are and without the Internet made ghee and such other stuff. We haven’t even capitalized on that to make ghee from Uganda such a huge product. We import more food as a continent than we export. Our matoke rots in the garden during the harvest season. Plans to make a powder out of it seem not to have progressed. Hopefully our new-year resolutions will lead to some real impact. djjuuko@gmail.com The writer is a communication and visibility consultant.

December 15, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Make teaching sexy again

#OutToLunch: Make teaching sexy gain By Denis Jjuuko On a recent walk in the neighbourhood, my eyes locked with those of a hawker only that he looked very different from many of those I usually see. Medium built, walking with a little limp. His hair must have been darkened the previous day. He was wearing a long-sleeved cream shirt and a grey trouser that must have been part of a three-piece suit. His shirt was neatly tucked in. He must have been in his 50s. He looked like your former headmaster! In one hand, he was holding a handkerchief and the other a rack on which his merchandise were strewn. This perhaps explains his limping gait. The merchandise though – clothing pegs, under garments for ladies and such other things – must have been worth about Shs100,000. He calmly asked whether I could buy some pegs. Usually, Kampala’s hawkers are in their late teens or early 20s. He told me he used to a be a director of studies in some private school but due to the prolonged closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he had fallen on hard times. When I got home, I cursed for not getting his contact and I haven’t seen him since. Anyway, last Tuesday was World Teachers Day. I thought of my own parents who are now retired teachers and whether they wouldn’t have been like this hawker had Covid-19 struck during their time. A teacher, slightly before my parents’ generation, was one of the most respected professions. Teachers of the day managed to live relatively well in decent housing and supported their large families. Although there are some teachers who are well off today, the majority simply eke a living and are one disaster away from hawking. BBG: The Supereffective Fitness Program You Need to Know buy turinabol Easy Chicken Pot Pie Soup – Anytime Fitness Recent efforts by government seem to be directed at only those who can teach sciences. I think salaries of teachers should be increased regardless of what they teach. When legendary entrepreneur Steve Jobs created Apple — the personal computer and smartphone behemoth, he credited its success to a calligraphy lesson he had accidently attended. Through that lesson, he was able to create a different product that was unique in design (and performance of course). So arts are as important as sciences. Teaching must be made sexy again so that it can attract young smart people. Payment is important. If the hawker I met in my neighbourhood succeeds in his new venture, he won’t return to the classroom. If any of his family members were thinking of becoming teachers, they won’t be able to do so. The image of their old man having worked for many years ending up hawking bras will be ingrained in their memory for ages. And the image won’t be rosy. Of course, you can argue that this man didn’t save enough or spent his money on stuff that were not important but we all know that teachers are some of the least paid people today. And apart from bars, no sector has been locked down for such a prolonged period like education. Many teachers who are now vendors of vegetables and used clothing will never teach again. A friend has indefinitely closed his primary school in Najjeera and sold off some of the buildings which are now being turned into condominium apartments for sale. Another who had started a nursery school has also closed it having made such huge losses. I don’t know about the enrolment of university students into education courses but I believe they aren’t very many. Yet, a report titled Secondary Education in Africa released by the Mastercard Foundation last August indicates that Sub Saharan Africa needs in excess of 10 million teachers (for secondary education alone) by 2030. At the rate teachers are joining other professions including hawking, the number is most likely to go up. At one stage, teachers were recording passengers for boda bodas for Covid-19 contact tracing. Imagine a boda man employing a teacher! If we don’t deliberately make teaching sexy again, young people won’t be enrolling for the profession in the numbers we need to make significant impact. For the majority of Africa’s young people, the easiest pathway to sustainable jobs is through education. We can talk about entrepreneurship but the people who have attained some level of education are more likely to create sustainable businesses than those who haven’t. If we don’t have enough highly trained and motivated teachers, young people will leave school without any skills that can help them sustain jobs or businesses. The World Teachers Day gives us time to rethink the teaching profession if we are to solve the challenges of this century. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com *This article was originally published on World Teachers Day 2021.

October 18, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch How to avoid having money in dormant bank accounts

By Denis Jjuuko Almost a trillion shillings is lying idle in dormant bank accounts, the Bank of Uganda said at a presser recently. And if this money is not claimed in 10 years, it would be taken by the government. You can call it the Idle Money in Bank Accounts Tax. If they lend this money to themselves before they take it at just 10% per a year (net of taxes), they would have another trillion in 10 years. How do people get to have money in dormant bank accounts? Bank of Uganda and ministry of finance officials didn’t say. But maybe people die and the next of kin don’t how to process this money or some are too liquid that they leave money lying idle in dormant bank accounts for years. The problem though is that this money is bad for the economy. It makes government lazy, earning money they have not worked for, which means they may not care how it is spent. If you earn free money, you have a license to be wasteful. If a trillion shillings had been spent or invested, there would have been some improvements in the economy. A trillion shillings can create many small jobs and sustain many others. But how can we avoid a scenario where money remains idle in bank and now mobile money accounts to the extent that the government takes it away. One way is to ensure that at least your next of kin knows the banks and mobile money where you invest. If you die suddenly, they would at least claim it and use it. The other is to have a will where bank accounts are listed and money allocated to people who can utilize it upon your death. However, one way we can avoid having idle money is by investing it. Many studies tell us to save and it is important and may be that is one of the ways accounts become dormant. Money should be invested to make more money. I may be wrong but I believe that invested money doesn’t end up in dormant accounts. How can we invest money? Many times, we think that to invest you need a lot of money. It is sometimes small amounts that can lead to significant investments. Somebody I know wanted to buy land so she can join the real estate sector. She wanted at least an acre within 20km of the Kampala central business district. She didn’t have even a quarter of the value of what she wanted but she decided to go ahead and look for sellers that would accept her payment plan. After many months of searching, she found somebody who agreed to her payment plan. She made a deposit and started putting whatever little money she got into the mobile money account of the seller. Whenever the seller was hard up, he would call sometimes for as little as Shs100,000. If kids were going to school, the seller would call. If he lost somebody and wanted to go for burial, he would ask for money. She just kept a ledger of the transactions. Before not too long, she had paid off the guy and she received her land title. She got a surveyor to subdivide the land into eight plots, which she now sold off at a premium. Last I heard from her, she was now dealing in much bigger sizes. Accumulating capital is through investment and not necessarily through savings. And in a country where raising capital is a challenge due to the high cost of money, starting small is always the easiest way to do so. Finding somebody who can accept your payment terms for something so huge is one way to do it. Idle money if not left in dormant bank accounts, it could easily be spent on non-essentials. With an economy that contracted due to Covid-19, there are always more people asking for money than ever. People you hardly talk to will text you for money and if you have it, you may feel guilty for not helping them. If you have credit with your suppliers, you will think twice before helping every undeserving person who asks. The other key thing is not to be secretive about the projects that you are involved in with your family and close friends. A spouse won’t expect you to offer endless dinners in 5-star restaurants when they know that the guys setting up your factory are demanding payment for the steel beams and trusses they supplied last week. They will understand when you say you are broke. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 11, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch How to be the next BMK

By Denis Jjuuko On the Sunday, a few hours before Dr Hajj Bulaimu Muwanga Kibirige, popularly known as BMK after his eponymous group, was buried at the ‘public’ Muslim cemetery he created in Nkoowe near Wakiso town, I was at Hotel Africana in Kampala. Unlike many Ugandan businesses and even government offices where everything stops because the owner or even some public servant has died, you could hardly tell that it was the day of BMK’s burial. There was a somber mood alright but you could only tell if you knew what was going on. The rest of the business was operating normally. For somebody who simply booked a hotel room and didn’t know anything about the owner, it was business as usual. There are a lot of studies about Ugandan businesses not celebrating their 5th anniversaries, but perhaps not as much of what happens when the owners die. Many Ugandan businesses some even richer than BMK run their empires from their pockets. No proper systems for continuity. When the owner dies, the business dies too. It is too early to tell for the BMK Group but I bet it won’t collapse. Dr BMK was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in 2015 and since then, he largely concentrated on fighting for his life, leaving his empire to siblings, spouses, offspring and managers to run. On Sunday, as he was being buried in Nkoowe, the hotel was functioning like nothing had happened. That is one of the key lessons for Ugandan entrepreneurs. The BMK Group never failed to meet its obligations because its founder was indisposed battling a terminal disease that eventually claimed his life a few weeks to his 68th birthday. Ugandan entrepreneurs must think beyond themselves by creating systems that can outlast them. There are many lessons for those who want to be the next BMKs. One of the key lessons that was the foundation of his success is a lesson he got from his late father, Hajj Ali Kibirige, in whose tutelage he learnt the ropes of business before he branched out on his own. Dr BMK’s father, a coffee trader and restaurateur in Masaka, repeatedly told him that although he owned the business, capital didn’t belong to him. It belonged to the business and, therefore, since capital didn’t belong to him, he should never touch it. He should instead devise ways of accumulating more of it. It is a lesson BMK never forgot. He was a generous man but you never found him throwing money around. “If you don’t respect money, it won’t respect you too,” he used to say. He also didn’t live luxuriously even though he could afford to live like a Saudi prince. The houses he lived in were nice but they were not mega mansions like some of those I see today built by people with an eighth of his wealth. He went where nobody ventured before. Started the motorcycle bodaboda industry that is employing millions of people today although we shouldn’t blame him for the lack of regulation that is crippling Kampala. He started gyms in Uganda and Tanzania, a business that is now in every little corner. He went to Karamoja to set up a hotel when other big entrepreneurs couldn’t think of it. As a trailblazer, he went into the packaging industry and even heavy lifting before anyone else in the country could. He always advised that people travel to learn what is going on in the world and meet potential suppliers. But he was also quick in making decisions. If he realized a business wouldn’t work, he quickly counted his losses and moved on. Unwilling to fight the anti Kaveera lobby, he decided to quit and concentrate on those that would enable him sleep at night. When he imported bodaboda from China branded BMK and he realized they were of poor quality, he decided to quit rather than soiling his name. He guarded the BMK brand jealously. But the biggest lesson — perhaps other than “not touching capital” is integrity. Dr BMK was honesty personified. He never refused to pay anyone. On his maiden trip to Japan to import vehicles in the 1980s, he lost USD50,000 to a thief while he was transiting through the airport in Hong Kong. Some of this money belonged to his business associates. He paid everyone back. His wealth is largely because he kept his word with his suppliers in Asia who always gave him goods and equipment worth millions of dollars on credit with good payment terms. Many of today’s entrepreneurs simply buy a new telephone line the moment they have received an advance deposit or relocate to another building when they have been given supplier’s credit. If you want to be the next BMK, you could grab a copy of his autobiography, My Story of Building a Fortune in Africa, or simply practice honest while working hard. Don’t “touch your capital” too. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 1, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Embracing electric mobility will reduce the cost of doing business

By Denis Jjuuko Cars may have started as means of transporting people and goods from one place to another. That may still be the case today but how a car looks like and functions matter more than ever. In a world, where car models are released every so often, how they look also matters. A global automotive executive once told me that cars are fashion statements. Besides functionality, people buy cars for almost the same reasons they buy other stuff like clothing, shoes or which hangout to frequent. In Uganda and most of rapidly urbanizing Africa, there are other aspects to consider too. Besides the financing options, the cost of running a vehicle for a day in a clogged city with unbelievable traffic can be enormous. Many people drive with one eye on the fuel gauge and the other on the price boards at fuel stations. A small variation in price, sees motorists thinking of abandoning their trusted brands to stations whose name they can’t recall even after a few times of prompting. As the cost of buying cars and maintaining them skyrockets, the other alternatives like public transport in most of Africa remain challenging. Many young people end up working for transport and remaining with nothing thereby entrenching them into generational poverty. There is no continent that is as urbanizing as Africa today. If we don’t solve transport challenges, we will miss the opportunities that come with urbanization. One way of solving the challenge is by fast tracking processes that can increase electric mobility on the continent. The Uganda Revenue Authority licensing regime is still stuck in expensive internal combustion engine vehicles. There are no clear guidelines on how one can get a license for an electric vehicle. In 2021! There are some companies in Uganda that are trying to turn motorcycles into electric bodabodas, which enable the riders to earn a little bit more income while at the same time protecting the environment. Due to unclear guidelines and/or lack of incentives, they largely have to get the typical motorcycle, remove its engine and replace it with batteries. This makes the motorcycle expensive to acquire although it’s cheaper to operate and increases the rider’s daily incomes. I believe if there was a critical mass of electric bodabodas in the city, the transport rates would go down. Bodabodas aren’t only transporting people, they are playing a critical role in e-commerce. Almost all people doing online businesses in Kampala, somewhat depend on motorcycles to deliver goods and even services such as laboratory blood tests. Electric mobility would significantly reduce the cost of doing business, increase the profitability of these businesses and ensure that we reduce the common statistic of businesses not celebrating their fifth anniversary. Although the numbers are hard to come by, there is an increasing number of especially young people starting online businesses, selling all sorts of stuff. From passion fruits, clothing, and even offering services such as home education and they all largely depend on the bodabodas or motorcycles. Sometimes they don’t make sales though because of transport. To deliver 60 passion fruits worth Shs10,000 from Nateete to Najjeera costs almost the same cost of the passion fruits themselves. A customer who is willing to buy from a certain trader ends up failing to place an order just because the transport cost is too high. The trader’s business then fails to make a sale, which reduces its profitability, leading to eventual collapse. Bodabodas also employ a lot of people. As we talk of electric mobility and as the world abandons internal combustion engines, cars and even bodabodas will increasingly need electronic components such as advanced control units. These components will contribute as much as 50% to the price of the vehicle by 2030. Can the likes of Kiira Motors and all these electric bodaboda companies be buying these units from Uganda instead of importing them? Engineering students at Makerere and other universities can easily make these components. A car is perhaps the most complicated technically advanced consumer good ever made. It is a unit of approximately 30,000 parts. Once many of the components can be made by a country, then almost anything can be made. If one can make a vehicle’s control unit, they would be able to make MRI scans and such other devices. The automotive industry is a catalyst for sustainable manufacturing. And transport is a key business cost, which can be reduced by electrifying it. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com *Kiira Motors’ Kayoola EVS, a fully electric bus.

October 1, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch What makes houses in Uganda so expensive

By Denis Jjuuko There was a recent debate on Twitter on the cost of houses in Kampala. The argument was that houses were cheaper in some parts of north America and western Europe than in dingy Kampala and Wakiso. A four bedroom flat in Mbuya goes for Shs650m or US$185,000. In some other places such as Munyonyo, Garuga, Muyenga or Butabika, similar apartments can cost as much as US$400,000. These are same rates or even more expensive than in Dubai. In Kololo, an empty acre of land goes for more than a million dollars. So, what makes the Ugandan property market so expensive? Most people say it is because of corruption of government officials in Uganda, South Sudan, and Eritrea. Although that could be true, I don’t think it is the only reason. In Uganda and indeed most of Africa, once a boy turned 18 years old, he was expected to leave the parents’ house and set himself up by building his own house. Although the age may have changed, a man isn’t expected to live in their parents’ house long after university. Also, most Ugandans consider a man successful after they have built or bought a house. A son in law who owns a house is talked about with glee. Unlike in the past, women are also expected to build or own houses as long as they work. This has created immense pressure for people to build or own properties. Also, many people aged above 35 saw how their parents suffered when they were retrenched and evicted from government properties. Besides, government largely doesn’t build houses for its civil servants anymore. Uganda’s housing deficit according to Habit for Humanity stands at 2.4 million units. And there are some 900,000 units that are substandard and need immediate upgrading. So, there is demand for houses at all levels both in urban and rural areas. Let us not forget that Uganda’s population is one of the fastest growing in the world and the rate of urbanization is increasing by the day. This has led to increased demand for housing. Yet the cost of inputs is so high. A 50kg bag of cement is nearly US$9 while a Y16 bar costs as much as US$22. Other inputs cost as much. Due to lack of sewage lines in most parts of Kampala, each house must have a septic tank and soak pit. That alone increases the cost of a house by approximately US$2,000. Most property developers in Uganda borrow money at interest rates of upwards of 20% annually. The cost of money in Europe and America is in most cases under single digits. Mortgages today are at 16% in Uganda. In Europe and America, many houses are built using certain wood types and such other prefabricated materials which reduce the cost of inputs including labour. The 2008 financial meltdown was because houses were available for anyone who wanted even when they couldn’t afford, which isn’t the case here. In the west, the housing market has matured and there is a price ceiling apart from mega mansions for millionaires and celebrities. Let me explain using Kololo as an example. An acre in Kololo has reached its price ceiling. There is a limit to how much you can sell a Kololo acre which isn’t the case in Gayaaza. I can buy an acre in Gayaaza today and double its price and still get a buyer. I can’t do that in Kololo because properties there have reached the price ceiling beyond which even those who have won a lottery wouldn’t buy. The developed world also has infrastructure that enables people to live almost wherever they want. Somebody in Europe or America or Japan can live 100km from their workplace. They wake up, jump on a train, bus or get onto a freeway and travel 100km every day. In Kampala, 100km is beyond Jinja or near Masaka town. Due to our infrastructure and lack of public transport, you can’t commute every day from that far to your workplace without suffering a nervous breakdown. Yet the cost of land just 50km from Kampala is so low that many people can afford it but they wouldn’t be able to live there and commute to Kampala every day. The cost of transport would be so high. The time spent to cover the distance everyday would be so much. It takes on average two hours every day for anybody who lives 15km from Kampala to get to work and another two to get back home. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 1, 2021

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Why local supermarkets flourish while foreign ones fail

By Denis Jjuuko Retailers from both Kenya and South Africa once saw Uganda as the destination for their expansion drives. Setting up giant supermarkets that even went ahead to sell matooke, cabbages and other vegetables by the kilo! Sometime back somebody told me that if you are a young man starting out in life and your girlfriend prefers to buy vegetables from these supermarkets, you should take to the hills before you become extremely broke. The implication was that our market is different. Things that are freely available in farmers’ markets should be bought that way. Yet Uganda’s retail market is one of the most lucrative sectors. According to the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) 2021 Revenue Performance Report, 71% of the revenue was generated from four sectors with wholesale and retail bringing in Shs5,783.69 billion or 29.43%. This even beat manufacturing which was 22.7% (Shs4,461.29 billion). The others were information and communication at 10.48% (Shs2,059.83 billion) and financial and insurance Services at a mere 8.39% (Shs1,643.54 billion). So why is it that a sector that is as lucrative as wholesale and retail is hard for companies with advanced technologies, business systems and structures and cheap capital? Shoprite, Nakumatt and Uchumi among others have found the Ugandan market tough to crack. Yet at the same time local retailers particularly Capital Shoppers and Quality Supermarkets have continued to thrive. A lot of the foreign retailers fail to understand the local market in which they operate. Off Prince Charles, a major road in Kololo, Uganda’s most expensive leafy suburb exists a kiosk where sometimes you will find somebody jumping off an expensive car to buy some items yet the fancy supermarkets are lined up less than a kilometer away in Lugogo. Small shops or Duukas dominate Uganda’s retail space in the neighborhoods where most Ugandans live and many such Duukas are growing. The foreign brands sometimes stock stuff that are largely geared to the upper class and the diplomatic market. Fancy dog food brands, car jumpers, toolboxes (Ugandans don’t DIY- Do It Yourself), brown bread, French wines and salami! That is why they sell vegetables by the kilo and fail to compete with Maama Junior less than a kilometer away at Nakawa market. The upper class, diplomats and expatriate market is very small. Local supermarkets understand their customers better. If they think sugar that is packed by the manufacturer is expensive, they pack it themselves to reduce the cost. They expand to locations where the majority of their clients live instead of concentrating in big malls in the cities. The success of any supermarket or retail outlet largely depends on the control of the stores. Did the supplier bring in what is written on the delivery note? Did the goods that leave the store end up on the shelves on the floor or it was diverted? There is a lot of pilferage in Uganda and once that isn’t controlled, then the supermarket can’t grow. If you regularly visit one of the foreign retail outlets in Kampala, you will realize that the floor staff are more interested in discounting the products for you so that they ask you to give them something on the side. This has been going on for a while and I believe it eats into the retailer’s profits. Many of the local retail giants are more or less family businesses. Family businesses in the sense that many of the staff in key decisions are either relatives or people who come from the same village. Some have been in these jobs for 20 years or more and the owners have established an incredible bond. Because they come from the same villages, the retail business owners play a philanthropic role whenever their staff have an issue. A huge contribution to one’s wedding and another when an employee loses a parent or a child or when they need a to clear some medical bills. That has created an unbreakable bond with some of the key workers. They look at the success of these supermarkets as their own. In foreign owned retail outlets, it is largely about work and any chance staff get (including the foreign ones who are brought here to manage) to steal, they take it. That is when they are closing, they have huge debts with suppliers who they haven’t been paying. They are here largely to work and will do anything to live beyond the retail business’s means driving fancy pickup trucks and living in leafy suburbs, dating Kampala’s most endowed belles. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 1, 2021