Kampala – Prime Time Communications

Out to Lunch

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

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

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Give school buses same rights as ambulances

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

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

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

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

March 27, 2025

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Incentives could further switch on West Nile for investment

#OutToLunch: Incentives could further switch on West Nile for investment By Denis Jjuuko On my first visit to Arua in West Nile, many years ago, my colleagues and I decided to unwind by visiting a nightclub or something similar to it. We were young and free. We had made the long trip from Kampala, rested a bit and decided to indulge in the night, enjoy some Lingala and whatever a bustling border town has got to offer. I had seen a huge electricity generator station by the roadside, a few minutes to Arua town but hadn’t paid much attention to it. I had also not done much research about the city’s night life. It was one of those days you jump into a car, drive to a town, get some accommodation and you are ready to go. A journey to discover the unknown. Some people call it adventure. In the nightclub, I noticed something strange. As a self-confessed nocturnal at the time, I had been a ‘happening’ boy by some lousy standards. I had also worked in journalism and the entertainment sector had been part of my beat. At university, I had enjoyed the exuberance of youth through clubbing. Nightclubs, therefore, were not strange to me. In Arua, at that nightclub, everyone had a torch. If you are considered old in Uganda, you remember the silver metallic ones with a red button on the side. Those were for the sophisticated ones. Those who lacked means had plastic ones. The only revelers who didn’t have either a plastic or silver metallic torch, were my colleagues and I. The majority of the people pulling all dance strokes on Lingala music were partly ‘giving us the eye.’ Like in most places, you could tell that people realize you are a foreigner. You don’t understand the rules. I became more cautious and decided not to indulge much and be more of a casual observer, with one eye on the exit door. Sooner than later, I realized why everyone who knew Arua well had a torch. At the peak of people’s enjoyment, electricity was switched off. The entire town went dark and quieter than a cemetery! Again, if you are considered old in Uganda, loadshedding is not something new to you. Electricity was always shared. If you had power today, you didn’t have it tomorrow. Rationing. But loadshedding in most parts of Uganda at the time meant power was switched off in the early evening around 6.00pm and switched back on around 10.00pm. In Arua, power was being switched off after 10.00pm. Strange loadshedding. Once power went off, the nightclub didn’t have a generator powerful enough to enable the rotating multicolor disco lights to be switched on. The nightclub’s standby generator was only big enough to power the sound system. That is why the revelers had torches. They switched them on. Some pressed the red button on the switches which made the torches provide a blinkering light. Others tied them on their waists. As they pulled those rare dancing strokes that are synonymous with Congolese across the border, they provided a spectacular experience akin to that of customized dazzling disco lights. What a spectacle! The ingenuity of the West Nilers. I have made hundreds of trips to Arua since that night and definitely power had become a bit reliable. But it is only the other week that West Nile was switched to the national electricity grid. It is a remarkable achievement or a shame that it has taken this long depending on how you look at it. The region has unbelievable potential given its location at the borders of both the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, some of Uganda’s biggest trading partners. Both countries are expansive and a big chunk of their populations rely on cities like Arua as the source of their goods and services. I learnt that some of those guys who were rivaling Congolese dancers in that nightclub were actually Congolese who cross the border to enjoy life. Anyway, both countries also suffer regular insecurity which means investors will always keep away apart from those exploiting the countries’ massive natural resources. But the investors could not set up businesses such as factories in Arua, to supply West Nile, DRC and South Sudan and beyond. They would rather set up in Kampala or Jinja where electricity was not such a big challenge. Yet if they set up in West Nile, they would be nearer to the market. Lack of electricity was always the challenge. Now that the problem is sorted, West Nile’s potential should now be fully exploited. West Nile is also very diverse with many different cultures, which can be a bedrock for non-animalized tourism. Even the alleged world’s smallest church is in West Nile! Nang Nang, perhaps the world’s tastiest fish is available in basketfuls. The River Nile cuts through the region, providing near perfect locations for riverside resorts and water sports. Land is still relatively affordable and fertile and some of the major towns are being connected by bituminous standard roads. Small planes can land in Arua. For those who love animals, Murchison National Park is partly in the region. Affordable trainable labour is in abundance. Electricity also means companies like Kiira Motors can now set up shop for electric buses. Or investors can think of electric vehicle chargers. An electric bus trip from Kampala to Arua would cut the cost by more than 50%. Major urban centres like Arua being border towns have populations with some bit of disposable income. But investors will need to be mobilized and incentivized so that they can set up shop. For those responsible for the country’s development, their work is now well cut out. Those selling torches, if they still existed, will have to pivot. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 21, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: A mere change of guards won’t transform Kampala city

#OutToLunch: A mere change of guards won’t transform Kampala city By Denis Jjuuko If you have been to Kampala, you may have seen cows strolling on the streets. Sometimes, you may have seen them chilling on the pedestrian overpass on the Kampala Northern Bypass. Cows, apparently, know how to scale the stairs. Makeshift markets are set up on the streets every day, selling all sorts of things including foodstuffs leaving garbage everywhere. Boda Bodas, the notorious motorcycle taxis in Kampala, move at high speeds from all sorts of directions. Kampala is one of the cities you look left, right, left, right and left again several times before crossing a one-way street! You simply don’t know where a boda boda will come from. And they will hull insults at you should you look at them sternly. If you are unlucky, like my friend, you will knock one or two around Mulago as you drive to your office. If it is not cows suddenly trying to cross the road, it is a stray dog sniffing a rotting piece of meat a mile away. At signalized traffic junctions, when lights turn red, they instead rev up their motorbikes. The traffic police look on haplessly. Passengers have no helmets. Riders hung the helmet somewhere at the front of the bike. The national referral hospital ends up with many broken limbs and crushed skulls. Government prefers to treat them than preventing the accidents! Living in a third world can be strange. Uganda’s economy is mainly based in Kampala and makes losses of approximately US$800m or Shs3 trillion a year in gross domestic product according to the World Bank. KCCA itself carries this unwanted statistic on its website. The reason is traffic congestion. Kiira Motors has buses that can solve this problem easily. But we fear to annoy the taxiprenuers and their backers. We can’t inform and support them to transition. We can’t ban street parking on Kampala Road to create a bus lane. We are happy to collect a paltry Shs2,000 an hour while losing Shs3 trillion. We are that strange. Anyway, perhaps aware of how bad Kampala is managed, the president decided to do something by sacking the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) executive director and her deputy. The news didn’t surprise anyone who has ever been to Uganda’s capital. Some of her workers, the ladies who try to clean the streets, threw a party and this time sweated under the midday sun celebrating her sacking. They claim she hadn’t paid them for months. The official reason for her sacking is the collapse of the Kiteezi garbage landfill that killed dozens of people in August. Yet it isn’t just Kiteezi. The roads, if you can call them that, are deeply potholed sending motorists to garages on a daily to replace suspension parts and other stuff. The air pollution is responsible for the ever-increasing respiratory diseases. Thieves surround you at midday and beat the hell out of you so they can take your fourth-hand Chinese phone. They know nobody will do anything to them. In the endless traffic jams, guys majestically walk looking at who is driving with windows down or checking who forgot to central lock the car doors. They open and take a phone or handbag. They don’t even run. They majestically walk. They know nobody will do anything to them. Others start removing side mirrors, car emblems and anything removable from the car. They even show it to you and inform you that they have taken it but you can buy it back from Kisekka Market an hour or so later. If the thieves who remove the parts are unknown, what about the shops that sell the stolen parts? They remain untouchable. They even pay a trading license to sell stolen car parts. What a city to live in! But the problems of Kampala can’t be just blamed on the executive team alone tasked to manage the city. Sometimes I sympathize with them. If you go to City Hall (somebody called it City Hole), you will see falling ceilings in some offices or those which have fully fallen off. You will see paper files everywhere on desks of officers (watch the hand over clips of the sacked officers). Yet on social media you will read about Kampala being a smart city. Whatever that means. You can’t have a smart city when desks of officers are full of paper files. You won’t have smooth roads when the officer responsible sits under a falling ceiling. Anyway, Kampala died. It needs to resurrect. Government must put in the money while hiring technical people who have the skills and mettle to run a sprawling emerging city. The Kampalans must adhere to living in the city. Some force may be required. If your cows are seen walking along Acacia Avenue, they should be slaughtered and meat distributed to people there. The herders will find suitable pasture in Nakasongola. If they know nothing will be done, they will continue keeping them in the city. A functional capital city is possible but the national government must do its job. A mere change of guards won’t do. All government agencies must be deliberate about Kampala’s transformation. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

October 21, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Let the demographic dividend not pass us by

By Denis Jjuuko The results of the national population census that were not overly surprising. Uganda is one of the countries with the fastest growing populations and we did not disappoint with 11.3 million added since the last census in 2014. We are now 45.9 million people. Phew! We are what some of my friends call “team no sleep” since we spend a great amount of our time producing babies. It is assumed babies are made at night when people frolic between the sheets instead of sleeping but that may not be the best way to start this article. We are a damn serious lot here! Anyway, one of the most interesting bits from the population census was the revelation that 55.6% of Uganda’s population is between ages 14 to 64. That translates to more than 25.5 million people. This is the age group that is defined as the working age. If harnessed appropriately, this demographic dividend that we have attained can lead to unprecedented economic growth. A demographic dividend leads to less resources spent on the elderly, those in retirement and even children. Those working should be able to take care of themselves and their offspring. Of course, this would require reduction in births so that investments are not put at entirely looking after children. However, it will take a while for us as a country to stop being “team no sleep.” Many people love to have several children or grandchildren. Sometimes it is because we are still an uneducated lot who believe that having more children is an insurance that protects a parent in case some of the children die. Since many children grow up by chance in Uganda, many parents would prefer to have more. If two or so die, they would not be childless, the argument goes. This means that Uganda would have to spend more money on education and health so that many people start seeing their children growing up and debunk their argument for having more kids. The more educated people are, the better chances of raising healthy kids. They will immunize them, make them sleep in mosquito nets, take them to healthy facilities when sick, and feed them better and most importantly educate them which eventually will break a cycle of poverty that most households find them in today. Also, like studies have shown, the more educated people are, the more likely to earn better. Investments in education are key in enabling people to earn better and live better lives. Many African countries have rolled out universal primary and even secondary education but the quality is low with many learners unable to read and write at the level commensurate with their level of education. Secondary education must be emphasized but also made relevant in this age of technology because this is the highest level many students in Africa attain. Digital and communication skills will be critical but also, they should leave secondary education such as O-level when they are able to do some work that can lead to sustainable employment. Integrating technical and vocational skills is important. If we massively invest in affordable high-quality education at all levels, investments will flow as businesses take advantage of our demographic dividend — a young highly trainable population. Most businesses such as factories rely on a workforce that is trainable to do repetitive work efficiently. They don’t even need to think, they need to simply add a part here and there on the assembly line or do the same thing repeatedly. Of course, there are many things that need to be in place to attract investments. Economic and political stability is crucial. And if we can’t find jobs for these 25.5 million people, there will not be political stability regardless of how many teargas canisters or pink water canons we import. If the tax revenue collection guys decide on whim how much one is to pay, it won’t make it easier for people to bring their money here either. If farmers in Masaka have to sleep in their gardens at night to protect their coffee from thieves, big coffee players will think twice before setting up their factories here. If a kick in Kampala sends you to your creator and the criminal knows police won’t find him, then people will take their money elsewhere. If Kampala remains run down as it is now, investors won’t be impressed to invest. Infrastructure is key. We can’t continuously avoid investments in the major road network in Kampala. Electricity must be available and affordable. Systems to facilitate businesses must be in place which means bureaucracy in government offices must be cut down. Civil servants should not behave as if they are doing investors local and foreign a favour. Otherwise, this demographic dividend may pass us by. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

July 23, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: Survival by borrowing entrenching household poverty

By Denis Jjuuko Somebody told me that to survive in Kampala, you need to learn a few tricks. One of them that caught my attention is on lending money to friends and relatives. Like almost everyone in Kampala, he receives several requests. A relative who needs to borrow to pay school fees, buy food for their family, pay rent, take a sick child or parent to hospital or enjoy a night out in the bars with the most dazzling lights. When he had just started working, he told me, he almost realized that he didn’t have any money left after he had met most of the borrowing requisitions sent his way. Years later, he came to realize that those who borrowed never paid back. In fact, some even returned to borrow more. He had to be ingenious if he was to survive in the city. He devised a method of only lending without expecting anything in return. So, if a friend, co-worker or relative called to borrow, he would only lend what would not affect him significantly. If somebody called to borrow say Shs200,000, he would offer to lend them Shs50,000. He never expected this money to be paid back. He never calls them to remind them of their obligations. If anyone paid back, he considered it a bonus. This method also worked as a deterrent. The majority of those who borrowed never came back to borrow again. Those who did, he would remind them that they hadn’t paid back what they had borrowed earlier. Many would pretend to be ashamed but at least he knew that person would never disturb him again. He says this model has worked for him and saved him the anguish of expecting money from people who had no intentions of paying back. I was reminded of this last week when a study funded by the central bank indicated that the majority of adult Ugandans or 17.2 million people out of 24.6 million survive by borrowing. The snippets from this study have made national headlines in some of the daily newspapers. For a country to have 70% of its adult population surviving on borrowing should be worrying. Uganda being such a young population, it means that most of these people are unemployed or earn so little to “afford life.” And when they retire or unable to work, they won’t have any pension to depend on. Many adult Ugandans who aren’t borrowing have become beggars. Parents begging their children. Couples begging their partners. Parents begging their sons and sometimes daughters in law. When we talk about borrowing, it gives a connotation that at one stage, money will be paid back by the borrower. Although it wasn’t clear in the report who lends these Ugandans money, many borrow from friends and relatives as the case of my friend. Money that is usually not paid back. To be honest, many of the borrowers have genuine problems largely based on our lack of good public schools and health facilities. Many are dehumanized to borrow and if they had a chance to find employment, they would diligently work. That is why Entebbe airport departure lounges are full of young people going abroad to seek employment. Had they been lazy as some people (especially politicians) allege, they wouldn’t be frequenting the Arabian deserts. Since the money borrowed is largely never paid back, the lender is denied an opportunity to invest it in worthwhile ventures which could provide a return on investment. That is why one of the reasons people end up without sustainable pension. They spend a lot of their resources while working to look after other adults, thereby playing the role of a government without the resources of a government. When time for retirement comes, they have nothing sustainable to rely on. The borrowing cycle continues for generations thereby entrenching household poverty. Some people call this “black tax” — money black people pay to sustain their extended family and a host of friends. It also fuels corruption. Few people are going to do the right thing when they have a sick mother at home and are struggling with hospital bills or when the children are home instead of school. Government needs to find a way for the majority of people to find sustainable jobs, provide at least affordable public health and education services so that they don’t depending on borrowing from people who also don’t have much. That would require the reduction on the largesse of government officials on stuff that provide no real value, provide incentives to local businesses to thrive instead of employing methods that lead to their closure while at the same time attracting the elusive foreign direct investment to spur economic growth. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

July 16, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: How Kikuubo can transition from trading to manufacturing

By Denis Jjuuko A few weeks ago, I was invited for a meeting in Jinja, which is about 80km away from Kampala. In order to make a small saving, I decided to drive with a friend who was also attending the same meeting. Our meeting was scheduled for 10.00am. We decided to leave Kampala at 7.00am in order to make it to Jinja in time. We thought that two hours were enough to cover the distance. Because my friend lives around Bweyogerere and it was early morning, we didn’t anticipate any difficulty in being in Jinja well ahead of the scheduled time. We decided to use the main Kampala-Jinja Road instead of the one through Kayunga that I normally prefer. Afterall, my anticipation was that we would be driving against traffic as the majority of people who live in Mukono would be coming into Kampala. The traffic was instead bumper to bumper in Namanve and Sseeta and we thought that once we go beyond Mukono town, we would be able to move faster. We continued our drive and along the way we started realizing that we could not make the trip by the scheduled time. We arrived in Jinja about 15 minutes late. I remembered this while watching clips from a meeting between the president and the traders who are protesting the tax system. The president advised them to become manufacturers instead of importers of finished products. If you are a regular reader of this column, you would know my position on manufacturing. I am an advocate because there aren’t many countries that developed without focusing on manufacturing. Through manufacturing, countries are able to employ large numbers of the working age population. Manufacturing ensures sustainable jobs with predictable regular income, a prerequisite for economic growth and wealth accumulation. When people have a regular predictable income, and not depending on chance, they can be able to invest in long term projects such as housing. Banks can offer low interest long term e.g., 30-year mortgages. Business people would invest in sectors for long-term knowing there are people who will be able to afford their products or services. When the majority of people’s incomes depend on prayer and the intercession of the holy spirit, investors keep away. The people can’t save. You can’t save what you don’t have. Banks, instead of lending money for business, they focus on lending to the government. They are nearly sure of being paid back than when they lend to businesses who don’t have an assured market. Anyway, if Uganda is to become a manufacturing hub as the president wants it to be, there are certain things that government must put in place. One of them is the highway not only to Jinja but to the Kenyan border. There are plans to build the Kampala-Jinja Expressway but they remain largely plans todate. If you are a regular user of the road beyond Jinja, you know that jam builds up between Kakira and Iganga (Kakira and Jinja is smooth because it is a four lane road). Maybe the Kampala Jinja Expressway should become Kampala-Iganga or even Malaba Expressway. If people are spending 3-4 hours to cover a distance of about 80km, like we did for the Jinja meeting, it will become costly for manufacturers as this is the main route for their raw materials and finished products (to the port of Mombasa). But even if the road was wide and smooth, road transport is expensive for manufacturers. Railway transport provides solutions but plans about the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) became a mirage. Yet at one stage we had a railway line that almost connected all the major parts of the country. We also have Lake Victoria; it can solve some our bulky transport woes. The majority of Ugandan traders start after dropping out of primary or secondary school. They learn trading and after a few years of frugality and tenacity, they make it big. They will never invest in stuff that are not tangible such as research and development (R&D) which is key if any country is to become a hub. What most traders know is that if you pay this amount of money, you get this amount of goods and sell them at that amount of money. That is why EFRIS is a big issue yet maybe it shouldn’t. Government needs to appreciate their strengths and limitations and invest in R&D on their behalf, showing them which sectors or products, they can invest in as manufacturers and handhold them until when they can transition from informal traders to manufacturers. It can match them with foreign investors for joint ventures and most importantly for technology transfer and support them on issues such as corporate governance. There are already traders in Uganda who have made this transition, how did they make it? It is the story government should be telling while dangling the investment incentives traders need to make the transition. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

July 12, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch Business bet: Grow food within 120km of Kampala

By Denis Jjuuko Last week we predicted that most parts of greater Kampala will be urban in 30 years. Before that, Kampala’s population is estimated to grow to approximately 7.5 million people in the next 10 years according to the World Population Review. Urbanization means that they will be less land devoted to agriculture within Kampala’s 40km radius. Yet people still need food. Africa imports food worth approximately US$35 billion a year according to the African Development Bank and is estimated to grow to more than US$100 billion in the next 10 years. This is a result of “population growth, low and stagnating agricultural productivity, policy distortions, weak institutions and poor infrastructure,” says a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a United Nations agency. Many of African dollar or even shilling billionaires are involved in food. In Uganda, we even import cabbages, onions and such other things! Yet our land is so fertile and the climate still favours agriculture. Uganda has a water body almost everywhere and even if you are to sink a borehole, the water isn’t that deep in most parts of the country. As Kampala expands and its population grows, there will be more demand for food than ever. The government is pushing industrialization as one of the ways to create the elusive jobs. With the internet and advancements in technology, many non-traditional jobs will be created leaving many youths working outside the agriculture sector. As Kampala expands, some people will become middle class. The middle class will demand more organic foods. They also don’t work in the gardens. Over the last few decades, many people have abandoned agriculture preferring to look for jobs in urban areas. The declaration that now some towns are cities will also lead to more people migrating to urban areas in search of jobs. At the end of the day, they will need food. There is a news video circulating online that the price of Matooke, the staple food in many parts of Uganda especially the populous central region has significantly gone down over the last few months. This has been largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the market and generally demand for food is enormous in central Uganda given the way Uganda’s economy is structured and the level of urbanization. One way farmers can cut costs and increase their incomes is by growing food that is needed in a particular market. If, for example, you grow a particular food crop where the market isn’t available it becomes expensive to transport it to the market. Let us take an example of Matooke. If you grow Matooke in western Uganda, the transport costs are enormous to bring it to Kampala where the market is. This means that the farmer will get less as the traders have to factor in the cost of transport. In the news video I referred to above, the farmers in Isingiro say the price of a bunch of Matooke is now between Shs500 and Shs3,000 instead of Shs15,000 on average they were being paid recently. In Kampala, a bunch of Matooke costs between Shs5,000 and Shs15,000 today from about Shs12,000 to Shs30,000 a few months ago. This means that most of the money the farmer could get is now taken by the transport man. With increments in taxes levied on fuel, the farmer will get much less. As you know, our value addition on Matooke is still in its infancy even though there is a factory that is being set up to make flour among other products. So the best bet for a farmer now to increase their profit is to grow food within a radius of about 120km from Kampala. This will cut down the cost of transport significantly and avoid price fluctuations that result in flooding the market. When a farmer is far away from the market, they may not be able to predict the market as they need much more time to bring the product to Kampala. A farmer within 120km of Kampala can easily monitor the market in Kampala and decide whether to bring the Matooke to the market or not since the delivery period is short. In two hours, a farmer can have his Matooke on the market if the plantation is within a radius of 120km. This calls for zoning the country so that farmers whose products are perishable like Matooke grow it near their biggest markets. Produce with a long shelf life can be grown anywhere even though the transport challenges would remain. So for those who are looking for post-COVID-19 business opportunities, growing food within a radius of 120km from Kampala is a smart bet. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

July 8, 2024

Out to Lunch

The industry of bolts and nuts and what small businesses can make on a car

By Denis Jjuuko In one of the dingy alleys of Nakasero at hitherto Kampala’s major hardware market area existed a very tiny shop that seemed to attract lots of customers. The customers, largely contractors would come with a piece of metal that they showed to the lady owner. The customers wanted the exact same part. Many times, the seller didn’t know where the part was. She was sure she had it but she didn’t know where to find it. However, she knew how to find it. This meant emptying her sacks or baskets on the ground floor and start going through hundreds of pieces of metal to find the part. As more customers came over, she would task the buyer to carefully look for what he was looking for as she attended to another customer. It was tedious but her customers never complained. They knew the modus operandi and most importantly they were sure they would find what they were looking for. The shop owner used to go to Dubai, Japan and such other places to source her wares. Most of them were old stuff, discarded from motor vehicles, towers, and machinery. Here people would use her wares as replacement parts in vehicles and even factories, construction and fixing whatever needed fixing. The materials she was selling aren’t unique at all. Simply, bolts and nuts. Yes, different sizes of bolts and nuts. As her business boomed and she became the reference point for bolts and nuts in Kampala, other people started similar shops in Shauri Yako and Kisekka markets. I don’t know whether her tiny shop still exists but there are many other shops today that sell bolts and nuts. They are usually in high demand as replacement parts for vehicles and factories, construction and for fixing lots of things. The funny thing is that the last time I checked, there was no factory making bolts and nuts in Uganda. I was once directed to one in Namanve industrial area. The warehouse was well decorated with all sorts of bolts and nuts and other materials that form the fastening industry. I realized the warehouse was a store and wholesale selling point. The owner was simply importing them from China and India. Though of course, my research may not have been thorough and was done several years ago. There could be guys making them today. I have googled several times how bolts and nuts are made and saw several videos from India and China. There was nothing sophisticated about making a bolt or nut. Largely, it involved an iron or steel bar that fed into a machine that sized it, created threads and the shape at the top. Nothing special to be honest. This story came to mind over the weekend when Kiira Motors announced that it had made eight electric buses from its temporary premises at Luweero Industries in the precinct of the UPDF barracks in Nakasongola. Like every time Kiira Motors makes such an announcement, the story that trends on social media is whether the parts were made in Uganda or not, followed by the argument that we cannot make things. But nobody manufactures a car in its entirety. It is small parts made by so many players that are put together to make a car. Same way a 5-star hotel makes a buffet. They get ingredients for the buffet from several suppliers who also get them from several farmers. It is called a value chain. Anyway, most motor vehicles have more than 30,000 parts. Buses, sometimes have as many as 70,000 parts. Many of them have to be fixed together using bolts and nuts. If our argument is that we can’t make a car, why then can’t we at least make bolts and nuts? It isn’t just bolts and nuts that we can make. There are many things that we can make on a vehicle that don’t require significant investment. Individuals asking what are we making on a vehicle can easily invest some little money in such areas — same amount they invest in a plot of land that remains idle and bringing no income in places like Kira (no pun intended). The beauty of car parts is that the majority can be used in other sectors. For example, we can make car seats but if you can make car seats, you can also make seats for technical benches at stadiums (Hoima stadium is coming up), dental clinic chairs, waiting room/reception chairs and basically any upholstering. We already have an industry here in Kisenyi where taxi seats are made. We simply need to deploy slightly better technologies. Fiber parts like face and rear. If you can make translucent sheets used for roofing shades and pergolas, you can make car fenders and bumpers. Brackets are used a lot to attach a range of car systems. All one needs is a bender and cutter to turn iron bars into such parts. Anyone making stainless steel balconies can make bus hand holds and cabin rails. Internal aluminum moldings should not be so difficult either. Cars are very sophisticated as a finished unit but many parts that make a car are not that sophisticated to make. And like I said earlier, most of these parts can be used in all sorts of industries and sectors. Instead of spending our bandwidth on the argument that we cannot make a car, what about, as small businesses, we started with those basic parts like bolts and nuts? The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

July 2, 2024

Out to Lunch

#OutToLunch: What are you doing with the space above your house?

By Denis Jjuuko When I left university, my friends and I rented a three-bedroom house somewhere within a walkable distance of the Kampala central business district. Each of us had a bedroom but we shared the living room, kitchen and bathrooms. We equally shared the costs but also avoided stuff we couldn’t individually afford at the time. One TV set was, for example, enough for all of us. One of our cheeky friends named it Ujamaa house—after Julius Nyerere’s socialist model. I was thinking of a better way we can have ‘Ujamaa’ in Uganda today but at an individual level. As individuals, it is easier to do certain things than always waiting for government to organize us. There is increased pressure on land in Kampala and its surrounding areas due to population pressures and the concentration of meaningful economic activity within the radius of about 80km of Kampala. So many people are buying land further away from the city where it (land) is more affordable largely to build residential houses and even commercial structures. The nearer the land to Kampala city, the more expensive it becomes. Many people with land nearer Kampala struggle either to develop it or sell it. This is because, the tradition has been largely to buy land which is either empty without any structures or taking over the land and its structures. But these expensive areas are full of incomplete structures. It is very common to find somebody who built a house or commercial structure and failed to complete it. Others take years to complete which means tying up capital which would have been used in other ventures. Yet we now have the condominium law which allows multiple ownership of structures on the same piece of land. The most common application of the condominium law has been the construction of apartments where units are sold to different people. However, we can flip this even where we don’t have the resources to build structures with multiple floors and many apartments. Imagine if you bought a plot of land today anywhere in metropolitan Kampala or any major town where you live to build a residential house for your family. It may be a bungalow or even a storied house. But the area in which you are building is increasingly becoming expensive. So, what if you designed a house that can allow you to build for yourself but then sell the space above what you don’t need to somebody else? This would require constructing a storied building with the foundation strong enough to enable other people to build on top. This would have to be planned with the architect and the civil and structural engineers. You build the house you need and as the city expands and the area in which you live becomes more valuable, you sell to somebody else to build their house on top. This would be attractive to people who may not want to live far away from the city and don’t necessarily have the resources to buy an empty plot or a house from scratch. Imagine if you owned a building in Ntinda or Muyenga today that you can sell to somebody and still remain a part owner. There are people who live in expensive neighborhoods today yet without much money and at the same time don’t want to sell and relocate to Ziroobwe or Bujjuuko. This model would enable them have money to cater for their other needs or live their dreams without shifting to a ‘poorer’ neighborhood or living far away from the city, in an area that they may considered beneath their status. Many people can end up owning a high-rise building without each spending so much money to acquire land and all that is required. And each of the owners would have their condominium certificate of title. Friends or families can come and do this together. Each floor of the house built increases the value of the property yet lowering the cost of maintaining the building since such costs are shared by the owners or tenants. Owners of incomplete buildings would be able to release their equity from a single building and avoid the wastage of space for storied buildings like it is in Kampala today. Those who may have been struggling to complete their buildings would now be able to do so while spreading their risk. To be honest, this isn’t even such a novel idea. If you usually watch Asian movies, this model of living is common. Many families end up living on a same plot each with their unit within a single big building. Hotel chains do so as well where they sell rooms to different people and charge a management fee. Each time a hotel room or suite is booked, the owner makes money less taxes and service fee. As individuals, we can plan for this and commercialize the space that we aren’t occupying. The writer is a communication and visibility consultant. djjuuko@gmail.com

June 19, 2023