Govt has to take centre stage in creating jobs

Let us face it, government must be the centre of creating jobs and opportunities for not only the young people but those in active service.
Ideally, this is done through attracting investment, financing priority sectors as well building a well-researched policy environment to promote innovation.

Over the last decade unemployment has shot through the roof with more than 80 per cent of the youth population lacking gainful jobs.
This has been exacerbated by slow growth and a lack of a clear development agenda that targets particular priority sectors of the economy.

According to data from Uganda Investment Authority, over the last five years for the period running between 2013 and 2017, government directly or indirectly created slightly above a million jobs which, if compared with the population growth within the same period were just a drop in the ocean.

The comparisons
Over the same period, higher institutions of learning had been commissioning more than 440,000 graduates per annum, majority of whom fail to be absorbed in the job market for years.
Raph Ochan, is the chairperson of the Public Service Commission, and he only wishes that government could offer more than it has been able to give at the moment.

Recently, more than 6,100 candidates filed in their applications to fill about 100 vacancies spread in different sectors of the public service and it is from here that Ochan acknowledged that “there are few jobs” wishing the several applicants success.

This was during the launch of the first Electronic Recruitment System through which all applicants seeking civil service jobs will file their applications.
The “few jobs” analogy is the bitter truth that many job seekers have had to grapple with over the last two decades.

And for that, government has had to shift to entrepreneurship but without a clear policy and required interventions, it is like fetching water in a basket.
“Your time at Makerere has been a phase to help you establish your roots firmly so that you continue to grow and be productive in the years ahead of you,” Ezra Suruma, the Makerere University chancellor, told the more than 14,000 students graduating during a week-long ceremony that will close today.

The emphasis on ‘productivity”, according to Suruma, will need students to have inward focus to create their own jobs without depending on the idea of getting employed. “Creating own jobs” is a that song many government officials continue to sing.

Many youth have listened and gone into entrepreneurship but the lack of a clear policy environment continues to have serious impact on innovation.
In here, according to William Okello, the chairman of Uganda Manufacturers Association paper producers, lies the challenge and government might be “asking too much from young people” some of who just lack capital and the required capacity.

“I think what youth need is an enabling environment on top of the skills they have acquired from universities to facilitate the job creations agenda that government continues to emphasise,” he says.
“If someone is going to farm and wants to use modern farming methods, how easily can government facilitate provision of extension services and irrigation equipment …” Okello asks.
Government, he says, should assist young people in the area of setting up model villages with a deliberate agenda to drive job creation.

Well thought out policies
“Countries that have broken even have been guided by well thought out policies and a deliberate agenda through building models to influence innovation,” Okello says.
Therefore, he argues, government cannot distance itself from creating or assisting young people to create jobs.

“It [government] must be at the centre and must actively provide guidance,” he adds.
Indeed, government has come up with a lot of policy programmes such as Youth Livelihood Fund, among others.
However, the challenges at hand might have overwhelmed them.
To government, some of these programmes have had good impact but much is needed as well as building a harmonised investment regime that encourages innovation.

First set of government e-recruitment rolled out
On December 13 last year, the Public Service Commission announced they had phased out manual recruitment of staff and had adopted the Electronic Recruitment System (ERS).

The exercise commenced on Friday last week with 6,108 candidates making it to aptitude stage out of the 10,000 that had applied to fill the 100 positions in different government agencies and departments.
According to Raph Ochan, the chairperson of Public Service Commission, the web-based recruitment exercise will eliminate human interventions “which has had many problems.”

According to Richard Onyomu, a commissioner at PSC, the system requires a an applicant to get a code, which acts as a reference every time they are applying for a civil service job.
The process, which includes interviews, is facilitated through a ditalised system that involves marking questions from aptitude tests .

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