President Yoweri Museveni has appealed to universities to equip students with skills relevant to the job market, especially the private sector. “As Government attracts more investments, the demand for a skilled and productive workforce will also increase. Thus, my appeal is that Universities equip students with skills which are needed by the private sector,” Museveni said.
He emphasized that the students must be responsive to the rapidly changing global economy which is mainly driven by science and technology.
Museveni made the remarks in a speech delivered by the Vice President Maj. (Rtd) Jessica Alupo at the 30th graduation ceremony of Bugema University in Luweero district, November 10th, 2024.
The president said unlike the past regimes which suffocated the private sector, thus undermining its capacity to create jobs, the NRM has created a favourable environment to attract local and foreign investments.
“Since we now boast of enough electricity, good roads, and peace, the government is prioritizing industrialization to cut down the hemorrhage caused by the excessive importation of items that can competitively be produced in Uganda.
He further told the gathering which included graduands and their parents that when we import these items, we donate both money and jobs to foreigners leaving our own children unemployed.
“More industries in Uganda means more jobs for the population and taxes to the government to carry out development projects,” he said.
Museveni said that in 1986, human resources, in Uganda, were poor as they were characterized by lack of education opportunities; lack of skills and poor health.
He added that in order to address this challenge, the government under his able leadership introduced Universal Primary Education, in 1996; Universal Secondary Education in 2007; improved maternal health care and launched mass immunization campaigns against the killer diseases like polio, measles, etc.
Additionally, his government also liberalized the education and health sectors to allow the private sector i.e. the faith-based institutions, cultural institutions, companies, individuals, etc., to set up schools, hospitals, health centres, universities, tertiary and vocational institutions.
He said as a result, access to educational opportunities, at all levels, has increased. “The adult literacy rate, in Uganda, is now 80% compared to 43% in 1986,” the president said.
These initiatives, he said, have led to growth in the life expectancy from 43 years in 1986 to 65 years today. He highlighted that Uganda, under the NRM, has managed to achieve the goal of a healthy and educated population.
“The remaining challenge is one of unemployment among the young graduates. However, this is a good challenge, because there is a cure for it,” he said.
He explained that the solution to this problem is prioritizing the teaching of courses that are relevant to the job market in the private sector.
The president said the public sector has only 469,216 jobs adding that these are very few jobs in relation to a population of 45 million people, meaning that the biggest percentage of graduates must seek employment in the private sector.
He commended Bugema University Management and staff, for making a contribution to the development of the human resource, in Uganda.
He said in 1986, when the NRM government came to power, we identified the underdevelopment of the human resource as one of the ten strategic bottlenecks to Uganda’s development.
“You cannot transform a country, sustainably, unless you transform the human resource area first. This is because the human resource is more important than the natural resources,” Museveni said.
He said some of the most prosperous societies in the world, like China, Japan, and South Korea have got plenty of the human resource and scarcity of the natural resources.
In contrast, these societies are more prosperous than Saudi Arabia (with plenty of oil) and Uganda (with plenty of everything, the president said.
He said that therefore, the riches of a country are not in the ground, but in the population, if it is highly educated, skilled and healthy.
Museveni urged the graduands of Bugema University to stand out in society as agents of socio-economic transformation, by utilizing the knowledge and skills, which you have acquired.
“I urge the graduands to refrain from reckless and dangerous lifestyles such as drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, substance abuse. The Government and your parents have made enormous sacrifices to educate you,”.
He told graduands that it will be an act of indiscipline if you waste away your lives in trivialities after such sacrifices have been made to make you a better citizen of your country.
“The Bible, in Luke, chapter 12, verse 48 says: “To whom much is given, much is required.” Therefore, I want you to know that a lot is expected from you in terms of building Uganda and your respective families,” the president said
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