Assessing UIA performance

Statistics tell it all that Uganda is facing chronicle unemployment. Of the 700,000 people who join the labour market annually, only 90,000 get jobs, translating into 87 per cent of qualified but jobless Ugandans, according to National Planning Authority.
The job creation puzzle therefore, shifts on Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), whose mandate, among others, is to attract foreign and domestic investment in order to create the much needed jobs.
However, a review of UIA reports over the last five years tells of the larger problem, which without serious planning will be hard to eliminate.
The performance of UIA in this regard has registered on peak and off peak performance if we are to consider its annual targets and eventual outcomes.
In the Financial Year 2011/12, UIA records show that they licensed 236 projects with an estimated total value of planned investment amounting to Shs1.47b with the total value of planned employment of 33,351.
However, in the same period, “employment declined by 73.4 per cent compared with the positive growth 2010/11 which rose by 36 per cent,” the report reads in part.
The following year – 2012/13 - UIA targeted 64,403 jobs but only managed 60,197, representing a 7 per cent drop.
This, UIA said, could be explained by an increase in technology that had subsequently replaced some of the panned jobs.
“The decline in planned jobs is an indicator of increased technological inflows as investments become less labour intensive,” the UIA 2014/15 report reads in part. In 2015/16 registered a 21 per cent decrease in planned employment from 44,763 in 2014/15 to 35,227 in 2015/16.
“The five year trend indicates that the level of planned employment reached a climax of 64,549 in 2012/13 and it later experienced a downward trend reaching 35,227 in 2015/16,” the report seminaries the findings.
According to Private Sector Foundation Uganda executive director, Gideon Badagawa, there has been a lot of red tape in regard to setting up businesses with investors required to complete a lot of documents before their businesses are licensed.
However, he says, there has been some progress made with the creation of one-stop centres in regard to investment.
“Attracting foreign investment is still a challenge. Our cost of doing business is still high. An investor has to move from one area to another to get a license,” he says.
Also, he argues, that government must consider investing in tourism and agriculture, especially in value-chain, some of the key areas that produce sustainable jobs.
“… but what we are seeing is government investing more in infrastructure which is good but the sector produces temporary jobs of two to three years,” Badagawa says. Investing in infrastructure, he adds, is good but there must be a balance.
“Yes, there are hundreds of jobs created but they are temporary. Government should invest in agriculture and tourism value-chain. This is an area government cannot run away from because access to finance by private sector is very expensive,” he adds.
The other area of concern, is the work attitude of the few Ugandans who get employed.
According to Godber Tumushabe, a policy analyst: “We need to reskill Ugandans and work on our work ethics. Ugandans who are employed, what they do there; they come at their time, they are all the time going for burials, they steal and that is a culture we need to change as Ugandans”.
However, beyond the reskilling, he says, the politics of Uganda that is characterised with a lot of uncertainties, is an impediment to job creation.
“Which serious investor will bring his or her money in country where they are not sure of a smooth political transitional?” Tumushabe wonders.