Finance Minister Henry Musasizi has said Uganda possesses a highly innovative but underutilised human resource whose ideas often fail to translate into practical solutions because of inadequate funding, contributing to persistent challenges such as unemployment and poverty.
Speaking during a meeting with development partners, government officials, researchers and academics at the Excel Agribusiness Incubation Centre in Biharwe, Mbarara City, on Sunday, Mr Musasizi said many promising innovations die before reaching communities because innovators lack financial support.
‘We have a highly innovative human resource, including professors, but their ideas and innovations die because they lack money to transform them into real solutions to address community challenges. I recently visited Kachwekano Agricultural Research Centre in Kabale with the Minister of Agriculture and found a lot of idle minds and science there because they lack financial support,’ Mr Musasizi said.
The meeting brought together representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda Industrial Research Institute, Excel Hort Consult Agribusiness Incubation Centre, CARE International, the African Agribusiness Incubation Network and local government leaders.
Mr Musasizi said the government would prioritise financing science, innovation and technology as part of broader efforts to transform Uganda’s economy.
‘The President has asked me to identify the economic bases to transform this country, and one of them is funding science and innovation. We cannot keep skilling people who cannot find solutions to address community challenges such as unemployment. Supporting innovators and scientists is now a priority,’ he said.
He urged universities, innovation hubs and vocational institutions to maintain databases of graduates and innovators to make it easier for government to identify, support and integrate them into development programmes.
‘Most of these young people are sitting on good ideas and innovations but lack funding. If institutions maintain records of those they train, government can align them to programmes and provide support,’ he added.
Mr Musasizi also praised Alex Ariho for bringing together development partners to explore collaborative solutions to social and economic challenges.
‘One challenge we face is that development partners often work in isolation. I am happy Professor Ariho has identified this gap, and as a ministry we shall support initiatives that generate practical solutions to the country’s problems,’ he said.
He singled out proposals such as providing alternative livelihoods for communities occupying wetlands before eviction and expanding affordable financing for innovators as areas requiring government support.
Prof Ariho said development partners needed to pool resources, co-create projects and jointly finance interventions if they were to achieve meaningful impact.
‘If we do not work together, resources will be scattered, programmes duplicated and communities will not benefit. That is why we are encouraging development partners to collaborate,’ he said.
Mbarara City Member of Parliament Christopher Bakashaba said innovation and skills development remained critical tools in the fight against poverty and unemployment.
‘The innovations and skilling programmes we have seen here demonstrate that unemployment can become history if innovators are supported with capital and market linkages. Without facilitating them to transform their knowledge into solutions, we shall achieve little,’ Mr Bakashaba said.
He pledged to support efforts in Parliament aimed at increasing funding for innovators and linking them to government programmes.
According to the 2024 National Population and Housing Census report, about 1.4 million Ugandans in the working-age population were unemployed, with unemployment higher among women at 14.5 percent than among men.