Government releases Shs75b to skill employees

KAMPALA.

The Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU), has received Shs75 billion from government to pay for the stipends of interns in work places as well as employees who need to acquire industry skills.

In an interview with Daily Monitor recently, Ms Ruth Biyinzika Musoke, the head Skills Development Facility, said the money is a World Bank loan which the ninth Parliament approved before its term expired last year; money meant to equip Ugandans with skills that employers need in work places.

“If you have a factory and your workers need a certain set of skills, approach us and provided you have identified the place to acquire those skills, we shall pay for their tuition, transport and the stipend for six months,” she said.

She said government found PSFU the most suitable institution to manage the funds because it has managed several grants before under World Bank and properly accounted for the money.

“You see World Bank is complaining that we cannot absorb loans. What we are saying is that come and apply for the training,” she said.

In a related development, Prof Charles Kwesiga, the executive director Uganda Industrial Institute, has advised Ugandans to become creative and innovative. While officiating at the Makerere University College of Engineering annual Science and Technology Innovations Challenge on Saturday, he said Ugandans lack practical skills to make things happen.

“There are no short cuts but develop the capacity to maintain, repair and calibrate our own equipment,” he said, at the ceremony where students from different secondary schools around the country displayed innovations that they developed.

Among the innovations were electric trains, automated ambulances, and robots to do manual jobs in production units.

Numbers

Shs75b

Amount of money PSFU has received to pay for stipends of employees