Out to Lunch – Prime Time Communications

Health

#OutToLunch: Unless we do something, we shall soon be sent to the villages to die

By Denis Jjuuko In the years when HIV/AIDS was wreaking havoc to the country, it was not uncommon to hear that somebody who is sick has been sent from the city to their village. Whenever you heard about it, tears simply rolled down. It was a metaphor for death. Everything has been tried and there is nothing else to do. Chronical illnesses leave many families in poverty and since there was nothing else the family could do, they decided to cut expenses, one of which was the transportation of a dead body. Transporters always charged a fortune. They understood that we may abandon people when they are alive but show immense love to them when dead! And that was before funeral management became a professional service. One could have thought that we had turned a corner from those devastating years of the 1980s and 1990s. That falling sick didn’t mean death but we seem to be slipping back to those dark days. At least two recent cases provide a reminder of where we are. It all started with a senior judge detailing the difficulties she faced when her now late husband was admitted and ended up describing the national referral hospital as “a monument” to the chagrin of its administrators. Before that dust could settle down, the country woke up to a crowd fundraiser for a heart transplant for one of Kampala’s highflyers who unfortunately died before the money could be raised, raising another spotlight on Uganda’s healthcare challenges. The two cases above were public figures hence the publicity they raised. People were bitter that we have neglected our healthcare by outsourcing it to private and foreign hospitals. If you have some money, you run to a private hospital in Kampala. If you have real money, you run to Nairobi or other foreign capitals outside the continent. The majority of Ugandans have no money to run to a private health facility in Kampala or any town in Uganda for that matter. They resort to witchdoctors, fake pastors and prayer to survive. And probably we are about to start seeing families sending back the sick to their villages to die like it was in the late 1980s and 1990s. We many times get obsessed with economic growth and transformation, rolling figures off our tongues. And as the national budget is being read this week, such numbers will be making headlines once again. If we really want to put money in people’s pockets, we must think about social services such as health and education. The cost of healthcare goes beyond what we pay to buy the drugs and pay for consultation fees. There are many lost hours when one falls sick. The sick person and the caretakers are unable to work and are spending money on transport and medicine. Given who we are, others are spending money to check on the sick. It deters economic growth. There is a need to improve our healthcare services as well as promoting health seeking behaviours among the population. If people are healthy, they will be able to attend school or get involved in productive work that leads to economic transformation. Although one of the cases mentioned above involved a heart transplant and many people called for establishment of such facilities, it is probably something that we can do in the future. The doctors who can do heart transplants and such high skilled procedures exist in Uganda but if we are still dying of malaria and such other diseases, our focus should be on primary healthcare services. Lower-level health centres should have well trained personnel who are motivated to work and given the tools they need to diagnose and treat people. The majority of our people seek services at such facilities but many times when you visit, you see despair. From people suffering from simple diseases such as malaria or women getting complications while giving birth. Many times, the health workers are very frustrated. They see their patients die who shouldn’t be dying. When such patients die, we convince ourselves that it was God’s plan. It wasn’t at all. We simply failed at the basics. One of the basics we have failed at as a country is health insurance for all. We know the cost of healthcare. We also know that the benefits of health insurance for all can offset the costs of healthcare but we do nothing about it. Unless we do something about healthcare for all of us, we shall return to the days of being sent to the village to die. The highly connected may laugh at this. But I have heard of some who have been sent back from Nairobi and India to die from here. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

June 23, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Canadian visas and what Africans must do to avoid humiliating rejection

By Denis Jjuuko I recently applied for a visa to Canada to attend a Rotary conference in Calgary and thereafter visit a few of their attractions like the Niagara Falls and return to Kampala. The application was rejected on grounds that I didn’t have enough assets and therefore I might not return. I thought that the visa officer had missed something, so I appealed and I attached some more assets. I thought no sane person would have such assets, get a visa to Canada, fly for 2-3 days, reach an airport and then disappear into mountains of snow! But the Canadian visa officer sent back my application rejected with the same reason. I believe they never read anything I attached. I don’t know anyone entrepreneurial like myself who would spend nearly Shs10m on an economy class air ticket to Calgary and then decide to disappear into thin air instead of returning home. I am also too old, lazy and highly educated to directly wash cars, clean airport bathrooms and such other menial demeaning jobs the majority of people who disappear in Canada do to survive. Some of my friends urged me to appeal again. I refused. I am not desperate to fly for a few days to Calgary or anywhere in north America, western Europe or anywhere anyway. I thought I could invest the money I would have spent in Canada on starting a new business venture whose profits could pay for the next Rotary convention in Taipei in 2026 or even donate it to charity. I actually donated some of it last week. Anyway, I hadn’t realized that I had become a statistic until I read a recent story by CNN that Africans lost nearly US$70m in 2024 in denied visas. That is a lot of money. If the US$70m is the annual average, in just a decade, the continent has lost US$700m. If you think of the interest that could have earned when compounded, it is in billions of dollars. Since the release of that report, many Africans have taken to social media platforms such as X to argue that the continent should become reciprocal. Charge westerners same rates they charge us and then give flimsy reasons to deny them access after all many that travel to Africa have no real assets to talk about. The argument is popular but lacks thorough thought. African countries actually are as discriminatory only that they do so to fellow Africans. Many people from the west can fly to any airport and access a visa on arrival with zero chance of rejection. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, says in a popular TikTok video that he needs 35 visas to cover the continent while most Europeans don’t need any. Why doesn’t the African Union copy the European Union and ensure that there is no need for visas to travel anywhere in Africa by a citizen of any member state? That would spur a lot of growth when Africa becomes borderless like Europe is. Also, why do Africans go to the west? It is because we have failed to put in place facilities and create jobs that we need here. With all the coastline we have, why would anyone fly to resorts in Europe, America or the Middle East? Africans fly there because there is nothing at home to write about. We can sing about lions and gorillas but we can’t even build an airfield where planes could easily land. Ssese Islands or Buvuma can be as beautiful as Bali or Ibiza or Santorini. But the infrastructure is lacking. That is why even when the visas are nearly free for Americans and Europeans, Africa still struggles to attract tourists. You don’t want to fly into Entebbe and then drive on the Mityana-Kyenjojo section of the road to catch the elusive lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Hotels are too expensive and poorly done. You can spend a night in a European resort paying only EUR160 or less inclusive of an endless flow of meals, beers, champagnes and whiskeys. Here? Somebody charges US$1,000 a night for a hotel room with a floor made of uneven stone slates! Our universities still teach stuff that one can easily find online and hospitals are in a mess. Can we host international conferences like the one I had wanted to attend in Canada? Only a handful of countries in Africa can. But African countries have money for the shiniest military hardware and rigged elections. No ministers fail to get the latest Landcruiser to go launch a pit latrine built with funds from western donors. We must build the kind of countries that we love to see otherwise Canadians and other westerners will continue rejecting us without any care in the world. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

June 23, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Farmers are willing to do the hard work, government must do the same

By Denis Jjuuko Agriculture has been for long touted as the answer to the poverty that is exhibited everywhere you turn in Uganda and in most parts of Africa. A recent study by Global Right Alert even confirmed that Uganda can get UShs10 trillion (nearly US$3 billion) annually from coffee. Our much-heralded oil revenue is estimated at about US$2 billion annually. When I read snippets of the report, I was at first tempted to ask where should we put our money? I quickly remembered that developing a country can’t be one directional. Extract the oil and get that cool US$2 billion every year and work on the coffee to get that US$3 billion too. Although many people have been focusing on coffee given the recent increment in quantity of production in central Uganda and elsewhere and the resulting high prices that have turned peasants into shilling millionaires, there is a lot that still needs to be done. The majority of farmers depend on unpredictable rainfall yet we are experiencing irregular seasons and changes to the climate. It is no longer guaranteed that it will rain during the months we all knew as rainy seasons. And sometimes when the rains come, it is very little or too much. No farmer wants to experience either. We still depend on the hand hoe to till the land to the extent that it is one of the most distributed items by candidates seeking support in the upcoming general elections. Although many farmers have small plots of land on which they grow food and cash crops, a hand hoe is 19th century stuff. Luckily, the Chinese have been kind enough to invent petrol powered ones that can help a farmer till the land faster and easily. The traditional hand hoe is a back breaking tool. One of the reasons many young people would rather sell the land, buy a boda boda, which they turn into a bed for daytime napping due to lack of passengers than spending the day in the garden. Inputs are expensive and fake. There is a need for the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to do their job to ensure only genuine fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs are on the market. It shouldn’t be very difficult to find who makes or import fake inputs. We can’t always blame everything on the impunity of some individuals with high political and military connections. If such people found a serious officer desirous of doing their job, they would back down. A certain government entity that owns a printery always refuses to print campaign posters of highly connected individuals on credit. The individuals usually curse the managers and promise to teach them a lesson but return with cash and pay. If they had found weak managers, they would abuse the system. A public officer who fails to reprimand the so-called Gamba Nogu (people with military and political connections) is just weak and wants to use the system to enrich themselves illegally in many cases. The other problem for Ugandan farmers is transportation. Some are able to grow significant amounts of produce but transport is a very big cost to bring the goods from the farmer to the market where the prices are not laughable. Agricultural produce can be rotting in a garden less than 100km to the market where there is a high demand. It was thus refreshing to read in newspapers last week that there is a project, at least for the northern region, that is working to change this narrative. With support from the Germans, the Ministry of Local Government is implementing the Rural Development and Food Security in Northern Uganda (RUDSEC) project. This newspaper reported that more than 1,300km of roads connecting farmers to markets will be rehabilitated and upgraded in Acholi, Lango and Teso regions. I regularly travel across the country and including these regions. Sometimes you find farmers with vegetables being sold at giveaway prices. One of the challenges they face is transport. The rundown Sahara or Isuzu can’t manage the roads many times. Yet we should know that an improved transport and market infrastructure would allow year-on-year accessibility. The cost of inputs would reduce because it wouldn’t take one so much to buy them. Ideally that should lead to increased inputs. Many farmers are willing to do the hard work to increase production. Entrepreneurs will set up the processing plants for value addition. The government should do its part too. Pay road contractors on time, make genuine inputs affordable, provide technical expertise and access to the market. Poverty would be history for many people. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

June 23, 2025

Blog

#OutToLunch: Finishing university? Learning has just started

#OutToLunch: Finishing university? Learning has just started By Denis Jjuuko Some of Uganda’s universities have concluded their end of year exams at least for their undergraduate students. Some students have taken to social media to celebrate this milestone. It is not every day that one gets to complete their education. In Uganda, many have been studying since they were three years old or younger. That is averagely 20 years of classrooms. Phew! Anything that takes 20 years to accomplish should be celebrated. And those in Uganda who have managed to complete their education are the lucky few. The majority of kids who start their primary education don’t get the opportunity to sit their primary leaving exams. Numbers continue dropping in secondary education and other levels. The end of exams comes for most of these students at the precipice of something new —disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence that is changing the world. Some jobs will have to go but many others will be created. There are about 400,000 young people that enter the job market in Uganda every year. It is a dauting task to find work but it is also an opportunity for many young people to define their future. The end of final year exams and the graduation ceremony in months ahead doesn’t mean the end of learning. Formal education for many may be over but lifelong learning starts right now. Life is about learning something new all the time and being able to adapt to the realities that are thrown our way. But the most important thing for the majority of young people finishing their university or other education is finding a job. There is a lot of talk about the disruptive nature of artificial intelligence but machines and such technologies won’t entirely replace humans. Those who will succeed are those who will learn how to work alongside them. But there are still other things that fresh graduates looking for a job in Uganda must embrace. They are equally important or even more critical than even some of the digital skills. Talent alone or high academic qualifications may open the door for you but it won’t keep you in the room. That is why many times people with average talent succeed over the most talented ones. Virtues that keep average people flying. At university, there is perhaps no course unit on virtues. Stuff like honesty. Yet it is a key ingredient of success. How many people promise to do something and do it? There is an increasing shortage of honest people in Uganda. Anyone who tries not to shortchange everyone will succeed. People including the most dishonest ones like working with honest people. They want to protect their side of the bargain. You have heard of honor among thieves. Communication skills are very important. You can’t only answer your phone call before you receive the deposit to do some work and then answer only when you want and then complain that person demanding their work are unreasonable. They were not unreasonable before you agreed to do the work. Giving feedback is critical. When they send you somewhere, you must report back. You don’t wait to be asked to inform them of what happened. Employers like people who are proactive. And so do customers for those who may want to go the self-employment or hustling route. There is no African time. And if you plan to work in Kampala, at the moment there is no public transport worth the ink of this article. Roads get clogged. But you can’t tell people that you arrived late because of traffic jam. I understand these days roads can be closed even to pedestrians but the reason you have a phone is to call and communicate why there is a delay. You may give it as an excuse but people will one day find out that you are lying. Read as much as possible. The more you read, the more you understand the world its complexities. Reading creates an open mind. Don’t be rigid. Listen to what others say. Writing even in the age of ChatGPT is still important. You will not always be sending WhatsApp audios. Learn to write. You can’t avoid it. One way to learn writing is by reading. And of course, learn a new skill. There are many online courses. Google, Storytelling Africa, Udemy and many other platforms provide free or very affordable courses. All you need is an internet connection and sparing a few hours a week. In the meantime, congratulations on the completion of your university education. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant djjuuko@gmail.com

June 4, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Police, banks must do more to curb digital financial crimes

By Denis Jjuuko A friend was recently riding on a boda boda in a leafy Kampala suburb when another speeding boda boda approached her. The approaching boda boda had a passenger, a young man, who grabbed her bag and sped off. It was in the early afternoon. It is a normal thing in Kampala to lose your bag or be attacked like that whether you are in one of Kampala’s exclusive suburbs or not. Walking on Kampala’s streets including the busiest ones is never safe. You simply don’t know when you will be attacked. Although she had some money and other essentials in her bag, her biggest concern was her smartphone. Like many people, a phone is one of those things that are hard to do without nowadays. She was frustrated and went on a frantic search for it. Reporting to the police and such other things. She can’t work without a phone so she decided to replace it as soon as possible so she can carry on with her business and be able to get in touch with her family and friends. As soon she got a replacement phone that afternoon, she started receiving several messages that scared her. The thieves who stole her phone were not ordinary ones or at least they have a network of sophisticated hackers. The messages she was now receiving indicated that money had been transferred from her bank account to another account within the same bank. This happened within a few hours or minutes of losing her phone. She hasn’t yet been able to trace the thieves and find way to get her money back. She most likely won’t succeed. Like most people who buy high end smartphones, she had thought it was one of those safe things and it couldn’t be easily cracked open in Kampala shortly after losing it. It seems the more technologically advanced smartphones become, the more sophisticated the hackers become too. There must be a racket in Kampala who send young men on boda bodas to grab smartphones so they can hack them and transfer money to their accounts within a few minutes. They must be sitting somewhere and waiting whose phone they land on. And the fact that they can transfer money illegally from one bank account to another, shows how confident they are that they won’t be caught. There is an increased number of Ugandans embracing digital banking and even a higher number using mobile money platforms. It is convenient and modern. One doesn’t have to always spend hours in the banking halls transacting. It is not 1990 anymore. Digital banking including mobile money had led to some financial inclusion with many people, hitherto unbanked, able to access financial services. There are even people whose only access to financial services is through mobile money. But how safe is their money? If somebody can lose a modern smartphone and within a few minutes they have lost their money, how can the banking and mobile money companies help them? How can police help them? Largely, the majority of Ugandans are left to suffer with losses. Trips to the police to help track the thieves become endless and costly that the majority of Ugandans have given up to even reporting about it. They know there won’t be much help to recover the money. The banks and mobile money companies will largely blame the victim and do everything in their power to protect themselves. Because we have spent much time ignoring these attacks and blaming the victims, the thieves have now gained so much confidence that they are attacking government payment systems. The case of Uganda losing Shs60 billion in 60 minutes when a payment was initiated by the Ministry of Finance to the country’s central bank is still fresh. Although the attack happened in September 2024, not all the money has yet been recovered. And we are talking about government here with all the resources and contacts you can imagine. Imagine how much is being lost by individuals and businesses. Like my friend, a small business owner, the thieves have set her several years back. She wasn’t able to pay her rent and salaries for April on time. She now has to borrow to keep her business running. The police and other security intelligence organs must put in a shift to curb the rampant digital financial and other crimes. Players in the financial industry must also continuously invest in technologies that limit these crimes while sensitizing their clients on these issues otherwise gains made will be lost when people return to old ways of banking or keeping the money in their pillowcases. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

May 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: A blueprint for politicians and entrepreneurs building churches

#OutToLunch: A blueprint for politicians and entrepreneurs building churches By Denis Jjuuko When it comes to religion, many times politicians, billionaire entrepreneurs, the middle class and other classes agree. At least on building magnificent houses of God. Across Uganda, many people have contributed or even single handedly built these houses of God. Fancy to a fault, majestically standing on hills with spires that compete with those seen in Hollywood movies. Many of these worship centres, particularly those single handedly built by one person or a family with their friends, are usually located in rural areas where the funders were born, walked barefoot to school before migrating to Kampala to find fortune and fame. The floors are of Italian or Spanish marble, porcelain or at worst polished terrazzo. Stained glasses with the beautiful image of the Virgin Mary complete the curvy life size windows. The pews are of the hardest wood. The world’s best sound engineers come in to install the public address system. The house of God must be fancy. Once construction is complete, they call in their Kampala friends for the grand opening. The clergy lines up at the foot of the building to welcome them. The parking lot is full of the most expensive SUVs. The parishioners walk in every prayer day fearful of stepping on the floors, sometimes so shiny that they see their own body reflections. Their best clothes can’t even be used to clean the pews. They can scratch them. For a moment, the poor are in heaven before returning to their houses where floors are screeded with cow dung. There is nothing wrong with people using their fortune and connections to build grand churches or mosques. It is their money; their appreciation of what God has helped them achieve. They no longer have some of these other problems so they can “give back” to God. The problem is whether the grandeur church is what the community really needs. Shouldn’t politicians, the rich and famous first do a needs assessment? Usually, besides the magnificent house of God stands a school with a falling roof or whose walls are being held in place by crooked timber poles. Windows are just wide openings where mild steel frames would do. Inside some of the classrooms, are anthills. Pupils sit on logs and like their homes, the cow dung is the main material used for floor screeding. Teachers look like they last had a decent meal on Christmas day. The health centre is miles away and poorly equipped. The only hope for survival whenever they fall sick is through prayer in the church built for them by the only person who was lucky enough to survive the biting poverty. Yet the funders go to India or Kenya or Germany whenever they feel any discomfort. And are not afraid to give testimony that last time they fell sick, they traveled to Europe for better management and while there, they were thankful to God for their life hence the magnificent church building. Yet the blueprint for an impactful church exists. In most cases wherever the Catholics built a church, they built a school as well and almost everywhere they set up their regional headquarters (read a diocese), they built a functional hospital. They knew that you can’t pastor the dead! They also knew that an educated population is good for them and their beliefs. Some people call it sustainability and perhaps that is why they have existed for millennia. You saw how they put on a show at Pope Francis’ funeral. Why can’t politicians and billionaire businessmen do the same? If you have Shs6 billion (nearly US$2 million) like we heard of the Ssembabule church or the one in Mitooma, why not build a church of Shs2 billion, a school of Shs2 billion and a healthy centre of Shs2 billion? You could also may be build all those with about 70% of the kitty and create an endowment fund with the remaining 30%. The annual interest from the fund could be used to operate the school and the hospital. If 30% of Shs6b is invested say in a long-term treasury bond, it could give a net return of approximately Shs255m per a year or Shs21.3m per a month, enough to subsidize a rural school and health facility. Alternatively, an income generating project could be established alongside the church building. A factory to add value for the parishioners. It could be a dairy plant or a coffee factory depending on the area. A scholarship for the needy bright students could be another alternative. That way people wouldn’t have to meet their creator ahead of time. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

May 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: If only we could learn from Pope Francis

By Denis Jjuuko The death of Pope Francis came a little bit as a surprise. He had been seen publicly on Easter Sunday, another surprise, blessing the faithful from the balcony that overlooks St Peter’s Square. Even though he was visibly weak, it seemed he was on the road to recovery after spending more than a month in hospital being treated of double pneumonia. He was 88 years old. Pope Francis is the third pope to die in the last 20 years following John Paul II in April 2005 and Benedict XVI in December 2022 even though he (Benedict) had long resigned from this position due to ill health. That decision of Benedict to resign allowed Francis to assume office in March 2013. Less than two years after his election, Pope Francis made the long trip to Uganda, becoming the third pope to do so largely thanks to the Uganda martyrs. And like most of the papal visits especially to countries like ours, everything comes to a standstill. Roads are paved, buildings are rehabilitated and grass is planted, public holidays granted and that wasn’t any different in 2015. People traveled from far and near to attend the mass that he led. Even our politicians who usually don’t see eye to eye were seen shaking hands at the Uganda Martyrs Shrine in Namugongo. One wished the pope visited every day! Those who met the Pope either in Uganda, the Vatican or elsewhere all talk about his humility. As he departed Uganda, a photo is shared of him climbing the steps to his Shephard One aircraft at Entebbe International Airport. He was walking alone, one hand sometimes holding his papal soutane, and another carrying a black bag, perhaps with personal belongings. He could have had as many aides as he wished. He was the leader of more than a billion Catholics but he lived simply and perhaps sending a message to nobodies that they too can be humble. Many ministers in Uganda never carry their handbags, there is always somebody at hand to do so. He refused to move in expensive limos or SUVs while visiting Kampala preferring a simple black Kia hatchback. Again, in a country where every public official craves for the most powerful vehicles. He lived simply and probably wanted us to learn something. Servant leadership. Showing off was not his way of life. He also understood that the Catholic Church needed reforms in a world that is rapidly changing. It may not have made him a lot of friends within the conservatives but leadership is about making key decisions including those that are unpopular. That way he endeared many to the church. He wanted a world where peace existed. He prayed for peace and welcomed everyone including many that he probably didn’t agree with. Perhaps if they listened to him, the world would have been different. There would be less destruction. We can all live together. He kissed the feet of warrying parties and urged them to embrace peace. Those whose feet he kissed only shook hands for a day and some are at each other’s throats again. He must have died wondering what needed to be done to stop the wars and killings that go on unabated sometimes fighting for no particular reasons apart from the egos of leaders and wealth that they would still leave on earth. Pope Francis still sent a message to those who deprive wealth of others by stating in his will his desire for a simple burial without the ornaments and all stuff that his position could afford. If he didn’t enjoy a luxurious lifestyle when alive, it would mean nothing to his body. There is a lot that we can learn from Pope Francis. His humility, ability to embrace everyone and putting others first even when it came at a personal cost. He didn’t adhere to the advice of his doctors for complete rest. He kept on meeting people and drove through the crowd in his papal mobile on Easter Sunday. And if leaders can take his example, the world would be a better place. Peaceful and resources shared with everyone. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

May 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Favourable interest rates are good for everyone, not just government

By Denis Jjuuko Now that the hullabaloo about the government takeover of Umeme is over, there is a need to ask some questions. Questions that affect most people. As you might be aware, many businesses survive on loans whether to expand, acquire new technology, or service their customers. Usually, the big businesses easily walk into a bank and get whatever money they need. Some even advertise calling lenders who would like to lend them money to bid. The lenders sometimes fall for themselves to do so. Government does the same. It even sets the interest rate it will borrow at and many times even refuse some of the money people are desperate to lend to it but to this, we shall return later. For the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it is a totally different story. You have to chase the lenders to give you money. Their instinct is to refuse. They claim SMEs, even when collectively are the biggest contributors to the economy, are risky. Chances of not getting their money back are high. They may not be entirely wrong. The lenders especially the formal ones usually take their time, making the borrowers even more desperate sending them to underground sharks. Some times some staff of the formal lenders are not any different from the sharks. They deliberately slow the process and demand stuff that are as difficult to get as those usually required by witches. Once they realize the borrower is super desperate, they pounce many times asking anxious SMEs for a commission. Imagine borrowing money at interest rates in their mid-twenties and somebody is asking for a commission on it. The commission is usually euphemism for a bribe. Desperate SME owners give the bribe in fear of losing out. Doing business in Uganda is like living in the wild, always looking over your shoulders for predators. Yet the say that what is good for the goose should be good for the gander too. Let us look at how government paid off Umeme. We heard that they borrowed money from a commercial bank to pay Umeme. The lender didn’t quote them the usual rates. It lent them at 7% annually. I am not sure if they presented any collaterals. I believe they didn’t. Currently, the average interest rate on dollar loans is 13% in many commercial banks. So, the government negotiated itself a bargain at 7%. When they are borrowing from the masses through the treasury bonds, they are giving an average of 15% on long term bonds (10-20 years) and much less on those with short tenures (five years and below). Like mentioned earlier, they many times refuse to take all the money people are willing to lend it. They perfectly understand that high interest rates are not good for them. But if they are not good for them, how can they be good for businesses and individuals? Newspapers these days seem to be deriving most of their income from adverts putting borrowers’ assets on sale by auction for failure to pay back loans. The majority of those assets are for small businesses and individuals. It can’t be that they all misused the money and went for life or made extremely wrong decisions. Some could have been because the government itself has not paid them for supplies and services rendered for years, prompting lenders to send the toughest auctioneers their way. With the Americans closing agencies like USAID, many businesses in Uganda are going to collapse if they have not collapsed already sending thousands of workers and business owners home. At their homes, auctioneers will show up to do foreclosures on mortgages. Imagine somebody who acquired assets to service the thousands of NGOs that were getting grants from USAID? Such businesses had not yet recovered from the closure of the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) by the Ugandan government. We had not yet recovered from COVID-19 for God’s sake. And as we prepare for elections in 2026, many investors will be watching from the sidelines to see what happens. This means investing less money and therefore less jobs or income for small businesses that could have supplied them or gained contracts from the value chains. Regardless of what happened with USAID, DGF or what will happen during elections, government needs to rethink seriously the interests on loans and work out a long-term solution. They can’t be borrowing at favourable rates while sending the rest to borrow at astronomical figures. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

April 24, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: A world of opportunity awaits UEDCL as they take over power distribution

By Denis Jjuuko On 31 March this year, something that doesn’t usually take place in Uganda happened. A contract between the government of Uganda and private electricity distributor, Umeme, ended as stipulated in their agreement signed more than 20 years ago. Usually, there is an extension after an extension to review something or enable to finalize the transition or something similar. Even more strange, Umeme acknowledged in a statement published in newspapers that it had received USD118,385,603 as the buy out amount recommended by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). Usually, payments from the government of Uganda take months and months, lobbying, threats to sue and even sometimes suing. Not this time. The speed at which government has worked is akin to a spouse eager to divorce their partner so that they can enjoy the warmth of their new lover. If this lightning speed is extended to all contracts and services, Uganda would surely be a better place. Although Umeme claims that its figure is USD234m and not the figure recommended by OAG, by the time of writing this, I hadn’t heard of anyone struggling to pay for Yaka or postpaid services. Nobody claimed had been switched off from electricity. Was this a case of both partners so eager to see the back of each other and willing to first each grab what they can and agree on some marital property later? Perhaps so. In fact, Umeme indicated that it would go for arbitration somewhere in London. At least, both former lovers were not punching each other and making life difficult for each other. Arbitration is always better than physical fights. The exist of Umeme ushers into almost uncharted waters for the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL). Although UEDCL has managed distribution in some areas where Umeme didn’t have presence, the scale at which they have to now operate is huge. One can only wish them the best. They aren’t particularly unique in this though. They can learn from the guys who issue driving permits. They took over from an efficient company and even became more efficient. As one of the final acts from its divorce, Umeme decided to leave by showing how much they loved their erstwhile partner and spared no coins in paying for a colorful centerspread infographic in the newspapers that showed their impact. One of their key celebratory figures was that they inherited a paltry 250,000 customers and are now handing over a base of 2.37 million customers. This is akin to a partner telling the other in a divorce case that I made you better. The 2.37 million figure made me sit up, lean back a bit in my chair, grab a mug of Ugandan coffee, sip and stare at particularly nothing. I wondered whether to celebrate or cry. We are a country of 49.5 million people according to the chaps at the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) as per the 2024 National Population Census. Also, there are 10.8 million households in Uganda. On average, Uganda’s household size is 4.4 people. And since the 2.37m customers included factories, offices and buildings, it means that the majority of households in Uganda have no access to electricity. I know that some households are connected to solar power especially in rural areas but usually that is for charging a feature phone, watch some TV on a screen of the size of tablet computer and some basic lighting. Good but not good enough. And that is where UEDCL and the government of Uganda need to work. How do they make electricity accessible and affordable to all? Electricity, not just for households, leads to development and job creation. When a small town is connected to the national grid, many young people are able to set up small businesses some of which grow into large enterprises over the years. It is not uncommon to find a village where there are powerlines but the people too poor to connect their houses. Transforming agriculture would lead the majority of the folks in rural areas to afford installation and service fees as well as buying Yaka units. The UEDCL will have to be more efficient so that power is reliable and doesn’t go off whenever it rains or every time a bird plays on the wires. They will need to invest significantly in the network, modernize it to reduce losses, and nip corruption in the bud so that there is more money to generate, transmit and distribute. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

April 22, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Francis Kamulegeya’s school for the deaf model need be emulated

By Denis Jjuuko One day, a youthful John met Joan and they kicked off a romantic relationship that was the envy of the community. They didn’t care who was watching. If it meant feeding each other, they did. If walking while holding hands was their way of showing affection, they did regardless of living in a conservative community. It wasn’t many months later that Joan informed the love of her life that she was expecting. They were excited and looked forward to the birth of their child. Both John and Joan (not real names) informed their parents, relatives, friends and whoever cared to listen about the pregnancy. Nine months run fast if you are happy about the pregnancy. Soon, the couple was running to the healthy facility so Joan could be delivered of the baby. The process was smooth and they were soon home to raise the baby. They did everything under the sun to provide for the baby. They were a happy family. As the child continued to grow, they realized that there was something unusual. They visited a few relatives and doctors. They were soon to learn that their beloved son had lost his hearing ability. The happiness they had enjoyed turned into nightmares. John started accusing Joan of possessing bad luck informing her that in his family they don’t give birth to deaf children. Joan counter argued that she too doesn’t have any deaf people in her family. John started distancing himself from Joan and the child. He was heard telling friends that he wasn’t the father of the child. He started spending nights away from home and eventually disappeared. Joan, a young girl, saw this as a big burden and after few years decided that she could not raise the child alone. She too needed to live her life. She boarded the taxi to the village to meet John’s widowered mother. She told the mother-in-law that since John had disappeared and she too needed to survive and find another man, she is leaving the son in her care. John’s mother was puzzled but understood Joan’s predicament and promised to raise the child, like she had done with other grandchildren. This isn’t a unique case for John and Joan. It is, many times, the norm with parents abandoning children with special needs. If they don’t abandon them with their aging grandparents, they drop them at orphanages. Some even kill them! Similar stories were shared over the weekend when we gathered in the expansive well-manicured lawns of Masaka School for the Deaf as they celebrated their 20th anniversary. Nnaabagereka Sylvia Nagginda was the guest of honor. The school is the result of the benevolence of my friend Francis Kamulegeya, a well-known former corporate executive who has since traded the designer footwear for gumboots to look after the venerable. One day, Kamulegeya was in Masaka town and stopped by a hardware shop to buy materials to renovate his mother’s house. Somebody he couldn’t recognize excitedly approached him. He thought he was the usual beggar and the hardware shop had unsuccessfully tried to send him away. He wanted to tell Kamulegeya something but he was only gesturing. Kamulegeya realized the man was deaf and the hardware shop attendants pointed to a bench across the street where this man worked as a cobbler. He walked with him across to his work station in a bid to find an interpreter so he could understand what the man was telling him. They did find a lady who interpreted the message. The man was Moses Kirangwa (now deceased) who was Kamulegeya’s childhood friend in Kimaanya village, a suburb in Masaka. Kamulegeya now recognized him. They had not met in decades and talked about the lives they were living. Kirangwa told Kamulegeya that the only difference between them is that Kamulegeya had received formal education at the highest level. It struck a chord leading to the birth of Masaka School for the Deaf. It is remarkable what Kamulegeya has done with the school using personal resources to provide a topnotch school for the deaf. Thousands have passed through his hands and many were at hand to give testimony to how education has changed their lives. The school located in Ndegeya on the outskirts of Masaka city has led to the birth of a much wider project with fish ponds and a coffee farm. Proceeds from the farm support the school, creating many jobs and changing the livelihoods of people in Ndegeya. He adds value to coffee and sells to companies to give away as corporate gifts. Imagine if he was supported to create an out-grower model where the entire community supplies him coffee and increased his production capacity? The whole community would get better prices. Before that, you could sponsor some of the deaf children who have no parents or guardians. It costs only Shs1,080,000 in annual tuition fees. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

April 8, 2025

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