Uganda remains one of the countries grappling with youth unemployment, a problem that a skilling centre in Mbarara City is solving through equipping and training young people to create jobs and make ends meet.
According to the National Population and Housing Census 2024 report by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS), the unemployment rate in Uganda was 12.3 percent of the working population (15 years and above).
This figure highlights a significant portion of the labour force lacking jobs, with high youth unemployment (15-24 years) at 42.6 percent (NEET – Not in Employment, Education or Training). At the skilling centre located in Biharwe, Mbarara City, several youth are engaged in activities that include tailoring, hair dressing, weaving, bakery and confectionery, crop and animal production skills, among others.
The head of skilling and talent development at Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Centre, Ms Grace Bazitire, said more than 6,000 youth, including those drawn from refugee communities of Nakivale and Oruchinga settlement camps in Isingiro District, have been trained at the centre since 2015. The initiative is supported by partners including the Directorate of Industrial Training (DIT), Private Sector Foundation, Uganda, and the US government.
‘I grew up in a community where age mates, especially girls, were suffering because of parental neglect and abuse, teenage pregnancies, and early marriages. I thank God I was not affected by this, and as a way of giving back, I chose to start this initiative,’ she said.
Ms Bazitire explained that the selection of the beneficiaries involves partners and local council leaders to make sure those who benefit are the most disadvantaged.
She said after training, the beneficiaries are linked to government entities and organisations to benefit from government programmes such as Emyooga, Youth Livelihood Programme, and Parish Development Model (PDM) to bridge the gap of skilling and marketing opportunities.
‘We realised that after training these young people need support to get to another level; that is why we are partnering with several stakeholders like local governments, refugee agencies, banking institutions and non-governmental organisations to bridge this gap,” Ms Bazitire explained.
Ms Doreen Ninshaba, 19, of Ruhunga in Rubaya Kashari, who hopes to gain bakery and confectionery skills at the centre, said she dropped out of school in Primary Five after she got pregnant.
‘When I became pregnant, my parents disowned me, so I moved to Mbarara City. I started doing odd jobs, but back home, my neighbour told me there is an organisation looking for disadvantaged children to take them for hands-on skilling; this is how I came here,’ Ms Ninshaba said.
She expressed hope that the skills gained at the centre will help her to start a business, and support her child.
Ms Evelyn Natuhire, 18, of Rwentanga in Rwanyamahembe Sub-county, who is training in tailoring and fashion design, said she dropped out of school after Primary Seven. ‘My dream was to become a doctor, but my parents are poor, and they could not afford the fees to take me to the next level after primary school. With the skills I am getting here, I am optimistic they will enable me to start a business and get money to further my education,’ she said.
Ms Jolly Umwiza, a trainer in tailoring at this centre, said she became a beneficiary of the project in 2020 and now employs 15 girls at her business centre in Sangano base in Nakivale Refugee Settlement.
‘I am a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo. They came looking for people to skill in our settlement, and lucky enough, I was chosen to be among them. I went under a three-month training on fashion and design, and later I started a business training centre in the camp; it employs 15 girls who do tailoring and fashion for hundreds of refugees in the camp,’ Ms Umwiza said.
She was retained as a trainer at the Mbarara skilling centre where she is paid Shs400,000 per month but back in the settlement she started her own training centre where she earns Shs200,000 on average a month after paying the youth for their labour and other expenses.
‘I use the money earned to boost my business at my training centre in the refugee settlement. I have also managed to buy a plot of land at Kaberebere Trading Centre in Isingiro District where I intend to set another skilling centre outside the settlement,’ she said, before adding that several skilled people grapple with accessing capital to start income generating projects.
Mr Samson Akandonda, a resident of Biharwe, where the skilling centre is located, said most of the youth who used to engage in criminal activities have been rehabilitated. ‘The centre here has relieved us of the challenges we have been getting from problematic youth who had turned into criminals, which I attribute to being unemployed, but when this skills centre came into this area, the situation changed. They are either employed there, or they started their own income-generating projects, ‘he said.
Recently, while visiting the centre, the Minister for Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Mr Henry Musasizi, said all innovation and skilling hubs across the country need to have a database on all those they churn out to link them to government programmes. ‘Skilling people without additional support will be a waste of resources.
As the government, we want institutions and innovation centres to have a data bank of those they have skilled and help us in linking them to government programmes,’ Mr Musasizi said. Responding to the minister’s demand for having a data bank from institutions and innovation hubs of the people they skill, Ms Bazitire said this will inspire more to join if they see colleagues get employed or create their own jobs.
‘The challenge we always have is having an idle skilled resource, this demotivates others, we have tried to link our graduates to government programmes but at times we find a challenge because when it is not a government initiative at times you get a backlash. But we are hopeful that with the minister’s intervention our graduates will be financially supported and linked to other transformational packages from government,’ she said.